Smart Contract

A smart contract is a self-executing agreement written in code that automatically carries out its terms when certain conditions are met, without needing a middleman like a bank or lawyer. You'll encounter these on blockchain networks (digital ledgers that record transactions), where they power everything from cryptocurrency exchanges to decentralized finance apps. They matter because they can reduce costs, speed up transactions, and remove the need to trust a single company. For example, a smart contract might automatically transfer tokens from one person to another the moment a payment is confirmed, with no human intervention required. The catch: once deployed, they're hard to change, so bugs can be costly.