What Is a Blockchain Smart Contract, and How Does It Work?

blockchain smart contract

A quick introduction to the smart contract and the crucial role it plays in your crypto transaction.

What is a blockchain smart contract?

A blockchain smart contract, i.e., a transaction protocol, is a computer program that automatically executes operations when conditions are met. The agreement terms between buyer and seller are directly written into the computer code, so the participants in a transaction are immediately sure of the outcome without intermediaries and time loss. Since the code that controls the workflow is shared across a distributed blockchain network, there’s no need to question whether transaction information may be altered for personal gain.

Use cases of blockchain smart contracts are found in different economic sectors. Smart contract examples include trading and record-keeping in information technology, real estate, and financial services. Since there is no requirement for paperwork and time spent reconciling documentary errors, smart contracts have become a preferred choice for any industry searching for a means to keep track of the history of property ownership and speed up the execution. Blocto—a cross-chain smart contract wallet—provides a textbook example of what blockchain smart contracts could achieve.

Blocto makes crypto transactions simple with the use of blockchain smart contracts

Meta-transactions

There are two pain points in a regular crypto transaction:

  1. Since the mainstream blockchains charge different tokens to execute transactions, wallet users need to hold multiple tokens to interact with various blockchains, complicating the whole transaction matter.
  2. It is common for inexperienced users to transfer their tokens to the wrong blockchain, so their tokens get lost and cannot be retrieved. These inconveniences challenge the new crypto holders every time they sign a crypto transaction in their wallet and broadcast it across a blockchain. 

To simplify the crypto transaction process, Blocto implements meta-transactions using blockchain smart contracts! You don’t need to hold a cryptocurrency to interact with a blockchain in a meta-transaction. Instead, Blocto smooths the whole process, and you simply sign the transaction in your wallet and send the signed data to your relayer (in this case, the Blocto team) for broadcasting. Since the Blocto team is the one that broadcasts your packed data across a blockchain, you don’t have to own a cryptocurrency to pay for the transaction. Whenever you trade on ANY blockchain, Blocto subsidizes the fee for you! All you need to pay back to the Blocto team are Blocto points—an all-in-one substitute for transaction fee—which you could get once you signed up! In the future, Blocto’s governance token BLTs will be replacing Blocto points to enhance a coherent trading experience.

With Blocto’s meta-transaction system, your transaction data is secure. Since your user account functions as a smart contract in the meta-transaction framework, it verifies whether the packed data includes your digital signature before proceeding with it to the final smart contract for broadcasting. Therefore, no alteration of the data could happen to your transaction.

Private key management & application support on Ethereum

In addition to meta-transactions, blockchain smart contracts enable user-friendly functions in a crypto wallet, such as private key management and application support on Ethereum.

For a non-custodial wallet user, logging in to the wallet account is a tedious process because it requires one’s private key or seed phrase. Private key, a long sequence of numbers that serve as the access code to one’s blockchain account, is challenging to remember. And seed phrase, a series of randomly-generated words created by the wallet to represent the private key in another form, is hard to memorize as well. In a crypto transaction, you need to use either of them to decrypt the data encrypted with the sender’s public key, a cryptographic code paired to a private key usually in the shortened form of a wallet address, to receive the digital asset. Running on smart contracts, Blocto custodial wallet doesn’t require you to log in with a seed phrase or private key to access your account but enables you to  sign in with an email address conveniently. If you want to keep your private key in self-custody, you have the option to switch from custodial mode to non-custodial mode at any time.Another great thing about Blocto’s smart contracts is that they provide a multi-payment solution that allows you to interact with the Dapps on Ethereum using USDC, USDT, and DAI. Adding more payment options to Dapps on Ethereum, Blocto hopes to build a seamless cross-chain experience for every Bloctopian.

Try out Blocto’s smart contract wallet and earn your Blocto points!