Ask HN: Any real practical use of Smart Contracts?

7 points by txt-me 3 years ago | 4 comments

It's been years the Smart Contracts topic generating buzz. Has there been any success in making it actually useful anywhere?

dtagames 3 years ago |

Calling some piece of code a "contract" is where the problem starts, because they cannot legally be contracts. These programs are just software like all other software with bugs and vulnerabilities and human actors who may or may not do legal, ethical things.

Pretending that software is a contract gets us into all kinds of trouble. All of the crypto scams out there were possible because people believed that the software behind them constituted some kind of "contract" that would guarantee a return on investment or the stability of their funds, which no software can do.

noman-land 3 years ago |

The Ethereum Name Service is a pretty cool use case for smart contracts.

https://docs.ens.domains/

alexnewman 3 years ago |

Any practical use of smart contracts can be argued if one ignores nuance with a cynical Gedankenexperiment. Proof remains in the pudding

djohnston 3 years ago |

Automated market makers are useful collections of smart contracts.