Placing Smart Contracts in Context
A "smart contract" is really a set of computer
programs designed to automatically execute certain transaction
steps, provided certain conditions are met. It's not so much a
contract, in the legal sense, as it is a way to execute a
transaction, using software. These have also been referred to as
"programmatically executed transactions"
or PETs.
It's worth emphasizing that smart contracts or PETs are
merely one element of the whole permissioned ledger ecosystem,
using blockchain (or distributed ledger) technology. The smart
contract enables and implements certain important transactional
steps, but those steps fit within the broader context of a matrix
of contractual relations between the participants.
