Prague Economic Papers 2020, 29(4):469-480 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.742

An Explorative Paper on Speculative Approaches to Smart Contracts

Sanel Halilbegovica, Necip Ertema
a International Burch University, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The trend of cryptocurrencies has stirred interest in the underlying technology that qualifies cryptocurrencies as a secure structure with speedy, timely and cheap transactions. The aforementioned technology, the blockchain, in brief terms is a decentralized ledger technology that attains an immutable characteristic through consensus and timestamp mechanics. The model also sets the stage for transparency in transactions, which renders the technology applicable to a myriad of scenarios that involve financial instruments. This research puts forth an argumentative approach to the applicability of blockchain technology and specifically studies the prospect of utilizing smart contracts. This approach probes the feasibility of introducing smart contracts to everyday financial transactions and settlements. An opposing perspective, by taking a devil's advocate standpoint, invokes the impractical or implausible aspects of implementing the blockchain in certain scenarios. Difficulty in auditing is a prominent example among those impracticalities. Research methodology is qualitative in nature and takes the form of exploratory research by examining existing literature on the topic.

Keywords: Smart contracts, trust mechanisms, transparency in transactions, big data
JEL classification: D53, E42, G23

Received: January 3, 2019; Revised: October 23, 2019; Accepted: December 10, 2019; Prepublished online: May 11, 2020; Published: August 31, 2020  Show citation

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Halilbegovic, S., & Ertem, N. (2020). An Explorative Paper on Speculative Approaches to Smart Contracts. Prague Economic Papers, 29(4), 469-480. doi: 10.18267/j.pep.742
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