If you've spent much time researching cryptocurrency investments, you've probably heard of smart contracts, which are contracts that can self-execute. Although the idea was already around well before crypto, blockchain technology has significantly advanced the use of smart contracts.
Several top cryptocurrencies now have blockchains with smart contract functionality, and they're opening up a world of possibilities in finance and other fields. These potential use cases also make cryptocurrencies with smart contracts a popular investment opportunity.
How to write a smart contract
If you have an idea for a smart contract, the first thing to figure out is where you'll write it. There are many cryptocurrency blockchains with smart contract functionality. Since they all have their own platforms and architectures, writing a smart contract is different depending on the blockchain you choose.
These are a few of the major cryptocurrency blockchains for writing smart contracts:
- Ethereum (ETH +2.95%) introduced smart contract capabilities using blockchain technology, which helped make it the second-largest cryptocurrency and the most popular platform for building dApps. Its smart contract platform is called Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and its programming language is called Solidity.
- Cardano (ADA +3.00%) is the first blockchain platform founded on peer-reviewed research. Its smart contract platform is called Plutus, and its programming language is called Haskell. It also has a domain-specific language, Marlowe, for financial contracts.
- Solana (SOL +1.94%) is designed to be the fastest blockchain, and it can reportedly handle 65,000 transactions per second. It uses three programming languages: Rust, C, and C++.
Once you've chosen a blockchain, visit its website and go to the section on building smart contracts. All the biggest blockchains have plenty of educational information and guides among their resources. The best way to learn how to create a smart contract is to review the information provided by a specific blockchain.
Smart contracts are one of the biggest reasons that people are excited about both blockchain technology and investing in cryptocurrency. Even if you're not planning to write your own smart contract, it's worth knowing the basics of how they work and the blockchains with this functionality because they'll play a major role in determining the success of individual cryptocurrencies.
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