smart contracts


Consensus Magazine

What's at the Intersection of Crypto and AI? Perhaps Murder

Security expert Ari Juels' new crime thriller novel "The Oracle" considers how smart contracts can kill. How real is the threat?

ari juels the oracle

Tech

Stellar Starts Phased Rollout of 'Soroban' Smart Contracts

The "Protocol 20" upgrade, which adds support for Ethereum-style smart contracts to the decade-old payments-focused blockchain, had been delayed by three weeks due to precautions after a bug was found.

Stellar Development Foundation's Tomer Weller, who is leading the "Soroban" project to add smart contracts. (Stellar)

Tech

Stellar's Foundation Supports Delay of Smart-Contracts Upgrade After Bug Found

A bug in the upgraded software, identified Jan. 25, was deemed to pose "little risk," but after "robust feedback" from the blockchain's developer community, the Stellar Development Foundation is now recommending a delay beyond the Jan. 30 target date.

Stellar Development Foundation's Tomer Weller, who is leading the "Soroban" project to add smart contracts. (Stellar)

Opinion

Towards Governance Abstraction: Understanding a 'Friendly' Way to Manage DAOs

Dagon, a technical implementation introduced by core developer Ross Campbell, looks to improve DAO governance and delegation using smart contracts.

(Katya Ross/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

Opinion

DeFi Has a Risk Problem and It’s Time to Solve It

While the total losses from exploits fell to $1 billion from $54 billion the year prior, this is still an unacceptable threat to users, Haven1's Jeff Owens writes for Crypto 2024.

Crypto hacks, scams and exploits netted some $2 billion this year. (fikry anshor/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

Tech

The Protocol: It's Crypto Spring, as Smart Contract Platform Index Jumps Most in 10 Months

The CoinDesk Smart-Contract Platform Index (SMT) saw a significant 19% increase in November, led by surges in Sei's SEI and Axelar's AXL tokens.

(Valentin Lacoste/Unsplash)

Policy

EU Parliament Approves Data Act With Smart-Contract Kill Switch Provision

The final version of the bill's text, reviewed by CoinDesk in July, revealed that it contained a smart-contract kill switch clause.

European regulators will focus more on banks' exposure to crypto-linked entities. (Christian Lue/Unsplash)

Finance

Smart Contract Platform Llama Raises $6M From Investors Including Polygon, Aave Founders

The firm aims to allow blockchain governance protocols to encode role-based functionality.

Llama co-founders Austin Green and Shreyas Hariharan (Llama)

Tech

Stellar, Early Blockchain Built for Payments, Adds Smart Contracts to Take on Ethereum

The nine-year-old project, one of the earliest major blockchains, is getting a facelift to incorporate "smart contracts," which theoretically could attract new applications and users – and potentially more demand for the XLM token.

Stellar Development Foundation's Tomer Weller, who is leading the "Soroban" project to add smart contracts. (Stellar)