Nick Szabo is credited as being the visionary, if not the godfather, of smart contracts. He sees smart contracts as agreements that “involve objectively verifiable performances, or performances that can be automated such as cash flows.” His blog “unenumerated” is fantastic (deep posts on a variety of topics – each one is an ocean of thought in and of itself) and his appearance on Tim Ferriss’ podcast is probably the best crash course on all things blockchain and crypto-currency related.
Nick’s proposed definition of a “smart contract” is (1) a set of promises (2) specified in digital format (3) which includes various protocols (4) within which the parties perform. Read more