Cardano’s Role in the Evolution of Smart Contracts

Smart
contracts
are
one
of
the
most
prominent
highlights
of
the

blockchain
and

web3
landscape.
The
digital
agreements
embedded
in
code
can
enable
automatic
enforcement
of
contracts
without
trusted
intermediaries.

Ethereum
has
been
the
favorite
blockchain
platform
for
smart
contract
development
for
quite
a
long
time.
With
the
arrival
of
new
players
like
Cardano,

smart
contracts
have
to
go
through
some
innovative
changes.
The
use
of
Cardano
in
smart
contracts
development
has
witnessed
explosive
growth
in
2024.
The
number
of
smart
contracts
on
the
network
increased
by
ten
times
in
a
year
thereby
showcasing
proof
of
its
growing
capabilities
to
support
different
types
of
dApps.
Let
us
learn
about
the
role
of
Cardano
in
transforming
conventional
approaches
for
creation
of
smart
contracts.

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Definition
of
Smart
Contracts
on
Cardano

Smart
contracts
work
differently
on
Cardano
as
the
blockchain
uses
the
UTXO
or
Unspent
Transaction
Output
model.
The
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
help
in
validating
the
transfer
of
UTXOs
locked
in
a
contract’s
address.
Users
can
lock
UTXOs
at
the
address
of
their
script
and
can
spend
the
UTXOs
only
if
the
script
supports
the
transaction.
You
can
also
describe
Cardano
smart
contracts
as
simple
programs
or
validator
scripts
that
allow
users
to
define
custom
logic.
Each
Cardano
node
executes
the
scripts
automatically
during
transaction
validation.
One
of
the
notable
highlights
of
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
is
immutability
as
you
cannot
change
them
after
deploying
on
the
blockchain.

Introducing
New
Changes
in
Smart
Contract
Design 

One
of
the
foremost
highlights
about
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
is
the
fundamental
change
in
their
design.
As
the
number
of
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
increased
by
a
huge
margin
within
a
year,
experts
believed
that
it
showed
the
maturity
of
the

blockchain
platform.
Developers
have
praised
Cardano
for
introducing
better
prospects
for
scalability,
an
energy-efficient
consensus
mechanism
and
robust
security
features.
The
exponential
growth
in
smart
contracts
deployed
on
Cardano
suggests
that
it
has
become
a
strong
challenger
in
DeFi
and

dApp
development. 

You
can
notice
the
evolution
of
smart
contracts
with
Cardano
blockchain
when
you
learn
about
their
design.
Smart
contracts
in
Cardano
have
two
distinct
components,
the
on-chain
and
off-chain
components.
The
on-chain
component
is
the
validator
script
or
the
code
that
defines
the
logic
for
the
smart
contract.
The
validator
script
helps
in
validation
of
each
transaction
containing
value
locked
by
the
script
and
its
compliance
with
contract
rules.
Cardano
has
created
special
tools
and
programming
languages
for
creating
validator
scripts,
thereby
showcasing
a
completely
different
approach.

The
off-chain
component
is
also
a
script
or
an
application
that
can
help
you
in
generating
transactions
that
follow
the
contract
rules.
You
can
create
the
off-chain
component
in
almost
any
language.
It
is
important
to
know
that
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
have
to
depend
on
the
datum
associated
with
a
UTXO.
The
contract
uses
the
datum
as
a
part
of
the
contract
instance
‘state’
in
future
transactions.
Without
any
datum
on
the
UTXO
in
a
contract
address,
the
UTXO
will
remain
locked
forever. 

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to
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Technical
Aspects
of
the
Smart
Contracts
on
Cardano

Smart
contracts
are
simple
programs
or
pieces
of
code
when
you
look
at
them
from
a
theoretical
perspective.
In
the
case
of
Cardano,
you
may
think
that
smart
contracts
are
the
validator
scripts
which
specify
rules
that
Cardano
nodes
will
enforce
when
they
validate
transactions.
The
overview
of
smart
contracts
history
will
help
you
understand
how
Cardano
has
changed
smart
contracts
with
the
validator
scripts.
You
must
know
that
the
validator
script
has
the
permission
to
read
the
datum
of
the
locked
UTXO
you
want
to
move
and
the
transaction
context.

The
special
feature
of
validator
script
design
in
Cardano
supports
the
development
of
some
complex
contracts.
Another
notable
highlight
in
the
technical
aspects
of
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
is
the
information
used
as
arguments
in
validator
scripts.
The
validator
scripts
in
Cardano
use
three
pieces
of
information,
such
as
datum,
context
and
redeemer
as
arguments. 

Datum
represents
the
data
associated
with
the
output
that
will
be
locked
by
the
script
and
it
helps
in
carrying
state. 

Redeemer
is
the
piece
of
data
associated
with
the
spending
input
and
generally
helps
in
providing
an
input
from
the
spender
to
the
script. 

The
context
in
validator
scripts
refers
to
the
data
which
represents
information
about
the
spending
transaction.
It
helps
in
making
verifications
about
the
approaches
for
sending
an
output. 

The
unique
design
of
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
also
provides
the
advantage
of
creating
multi-step
contract
workflows.
It
represents
a
new
phase
in
the
transformation
of
smart
contracts
by
adding
more
steps
to
the
basic
workflow.
You
can
use
multi-step
contract
workflows
for
creating
contracts
that
need
multiple
steps.
One
of
the
examples
of
multi-step
contract
workflow
involves
a
contract
that
needs
three
different
people
to
agree
on
the
authority
to
claim
the
value
locked
in
an
instance.
With
the
facility
of
creating
multi-step
contracts,
Cardano
has
definitely
created
a
new
milestone
in
the
history
of
smart
contracts.

Multiple
Programming
Languages
for
Smart
Contracts
on
Cardano

Another
way
to
determine
the
impact
of
Cardano
on
the
evolutionary
transformation
of
smart
contracts
involves
an
overview
of
smart
contract
programming
languages
on
Cardano.
The
Cardano
blockchain
introduced
support
for
smart
contract
development
in
2021.
Over
time,

Cardano
evolved
into
a
multi-functional
environment
and
now
supports
the
creation
and

deployment
of
smart
contracts
with
different
programming
languages.
You
can
find
multiple
answers
to
‘What
language
does
Cardano
use
for
smart
contracts?’
as
Cardano
uses
five
programming
languages.
The
five
programming
languages
for
smart
contracts
showcase
the
efforts
of
Cardano
in
driving
transformative
changes
for
smart
contract
development.

Plutus
is
the
ideal
platform
for
the
purpose
of
smart
contract
development
and
execution.
It
is
a
comprehensive
platform
for
creating
full
applications
that
can
interact
with
Cardano
blockchain.
Smart
contracts
written
in
Plutus
include
parts
that
run
on
the
blockchain
and
the
ones
that
run
on
user
machine.
Plutus
draws
inspiration
from
research
in
modern
programming
languages
to
offer
a
completely
secure
full-stack
programming
environment.
The
Plutus
smart
contract
programming
language
uses
Haskell
as
inspiration
since
it
is
one
of
the
leading
functional
programming
languages. 

Plu-ts
represent
the
Typescript-embedded
smart
contract
programming
language
on
Cardano.
It
also
offers
a
transaction
creation
library
to
interact
with
smart
contracts
on
Cardano. 

The
impact
of
Cardano
in
smart
contracts
programming
also
sheds
light
on
the
Aiken
programming
language.
It
is
a
programming
language
as
well
as
a
collection
of
tools
that
simplify
the
experience
of

smart
contract
developers.
Aiken
is
useful
for
writing
on-chain
validator
scripts
only.
You
can
think
of
Aiken
as
the
programming
language

Solidity
that
helps
you
write
smart
contract
logic.

OpShin
is
another
notable
name
among
the
programming
languages
used
for
smart
contract
development
on
Cardano.
You
can
use
OpShin
to
create
generic
smart
contracts
on
the
Cardano
blockchain.
It
is
important
to
note
that
OpShin
draws
inspiration
from
the
most
popular
programming
language,
Python. 

You
can
understand
the
role
of
Cardano
in
the
evolutionary
transformation
of
smart
contracts
with
an
understanding
of
Marlowe.
It
is
a
domain-specific
language
tailored
specifically
for
the
domain
of
financial
contracts.
Developers
can
use
Marlowe
to
create
and
execute
financial
contracts
with
the
help
of
traditional
coding
approaches
or
through
visualizations.
Financial
institutions
can
leverage
Marlowe
to
create
and
implement
custom
applications
for
customers
and
clients.
On
top
of
it,
the
embedding
of
Marlowe
in
Haskell,
JavaScript
and
Typescript
offer
the
flexibility
to
choose
different
editors
according
to
your
skills
and
preferences. 

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yourself
with
the
complete
Ethereum
smart
contract
development
lifecycle
and
gain
fluency
in
the
best
practices
for
smart
contract
coding,
testing,
and
deployment
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Contracts
Development
Course.

Parallels
between
Cardano
Evolution
and
Smart
Contract
Evolution

The
Goguen
era
in
the
roadmap
of
Cardano
blockchain
introduced
smart
contract
functionality
and
allowed
the
development
of

dApps
on
Cardano.
One
of
the
biggest
highlights
of
Goguen
era
that
marks
a
huge
highlight
for
the
evolution
of
smart
contracts
is
the
introduction
of
Plutus.
The
smart
contract
development
language
introduced
the
advantages
of
functional
programming
in
the
domain
of
smart
contract
creation.
Plutus
not
only
marks
a
major
milestone
in
the
evolution
of
Cardano
but
also
introduced
support
for
on-chain
and
off-chain
components
in
smart
contract
code.

Another
smart
contract
programming
language
by
Cardano,
Marlowe,
allows
creation
and
implementation
of
financial
contracts.
The
domain-specific
language
introduces
the
possibility
of
creating
new
smart
contract
programming
languages
that
focus
on
specific
domains.
The
best
thing
about
Marlowe
is
that
non-programmers
can
also
use
their
domain
knowledge
to
create
smart
contracts
from
scratch. 

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you
aspiring
to
learn
the
fundamentals
of
the
Ethereum
Virtual
Machine
and
smart
contracts’
upgradability?
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Final
Thoughts 

The
review
of
the
design
of
Cardano
smart
contracts
showcases
that
Cardano
blockchain
has
moved
one
step
ahead
in

smart
contract
evolution.
First
of
all,
you
must
note
the
presence
of
on-chain
and
off-chain
components
in
smart
contracts
on
Cardano.
On
the
other
hand,
you
must
also
notice
that
Cardano
has
introduced
five
different
programming
languages
for
smart
contracts.
The
most
noticeable
programming
languages
for
smart
contracts
on
Cardano
are
Plutus
and
Marlowe.
Plutus
ensures
support
for
on-chain
and
off-chain
components
in
the
smart
contract
code
while
Marlow
allows
non-programmers
to
create
smart
contracts.
Learn
more
about
Cardano
development
roadmap
to
discover
unique
insights
on
how
Cardano
has
transformed
smart
contracts.