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From 1942 to 1944, the US issued what collectors call Hawaiian Overprints. As can be seen in the image, certain notes had "Hawaii" overprinted on their faces and backs. The notes were $1 Silver Certificates and $5, $10, and $20 Federal Reserve Notes. They were issued only in Hawaii with some circulating in US military theaters in the far East. The notes were issued after the start of World War II in the Pacific. And, the smart contract part of the notes was the "Hawaii" overprint. If the notes ever fell into enemy hands they would become worthless, not being recognized as legitimate US currency. Thus, like a smart contract, when certain conditions were met, the value of the note changed. In this case, it went to zero.

Binur Zhalenov, CEO of the National Bank of Kazakhstan National Payments Corporation, has described a pilot that uses digital tenge smart contracts to optimize government subsidies, in this case involving school canteen subsidies. Each school student in Almaty has an "ONAY!" transportation card. When a student uses this card in the school canteen, a smart contract is triggered that transfers digital tenge from the school's account directly to the canteen operator's account, but only when the student actually receives the service. This significantly cuts down on unnecessary reporting, canteens receive funds instantly after providing services, and ensures clear visibility of government fund usage.

Digital Asset is collaborating with ISDA to develop a new tool that can support the use of smart contracts for derivatives trading. The collaboration focuses on creating interoperable technical solutions that advance standardization to allow for greater automation of derivatives trade management.

UBS is spearheading the use of smart contracts for some Asian structured products to reduce manual inputs required for trades, which it believes will save costs and boost profit margins.

Outside of tokenomics, there is a lot more power in the blockchain, especially in regards to smart contracts. Thus, a recent partnership between Google and Chainlink, a company that provides on ramps and off ramps for information necessary to run smart contracts, may hint at Google wanting a bigger slice of the pie.

Smart contracts could soon get a boost in bitcoin as prominent programmer Pieter Wuille has unveiled a new coding language designed specifically for their use. The 'Miniscript' language aims to make it easier for programmers to write up "smart contracts" or conditions for spending bitcoins.

With the right legal framework, Committed Settlement can give you the ability to create, record, notify and/or perfect security interests (depending on the jurisdiction) in a fraction of a millisecond - and with minimal cost. With these efficiencies, it may change the way we approach bankruptcy proceedings, collateral and risk management - if not all financial transactions in general

People's Bank of China deputy governor Fan Yifei outlines why he favours an indirect approach to introducing a CBDC in China.

We consider a special variant of a smart derivative contract, ie, a financial product, which contains an embedded algorithm to handle margining and failure-to-pay in a fully deterministic way. The contract itself then serves as a micro-counterpart. This smart contract allows us to effectively remove counterparty-related risks, such as inefficiencies in payment netting, determination and failure-to-pay event processing.fin

The problem with smart contracts is that by design they're hard or impossible to alter, which requires the most painstaking code review and analysis so that you don't lose money to an exploit, but you make more money by being quick to market. DeFi apps that use chains of smart contract programs to automate complex financial transactions enable attacks to be chained too. Unsurprisingly, it's a continuing dumpster fire, reliably delivering comedy gold. The problem with DeFi is not the technology, though that's bad too - it's that people are greedy and foolish.

Cardano launched the first testnet for its smart contract platform, Alonzo, that will be rolled out in three phases, each named after a different color. The current blue phase will be followed by Alonzo White and Alonzo Purple, each aiming to include more users and add functionality to the network. The phases are to be rolled out at 30-day intervals, with Alonzo Purple expected to launch by the end of August. Alonzo also will support an ERC20 converter, allowing ETH tokens to run on Cardano, making its proof-of-stake network a serious competitor to Ethereum.

Commerzbank was involved in a joint blockchain project with chemical firms BASF and Evonik, who frequently trade with each other. Supply chain payments were verified, paid and logged in a fully automated manner using smart contracts. In other words, it used programmable money or cash on ledger. At a legal level, the digital cash was e-money.

We often hear that modern money just isn't up to snuff because it isn't programmable. That's why we need Ethereum, stablecoins, and other exotica like central bank digital currencies. These platforms will provide the world with much needed programmability. However, we've had programmable money for ages. For example, programming COVID relief didn't require anything fancy like Ethereum or stablecoins. The card networks make it easy to do this sort of thing.

While "programmable money" as a term may have originated in the public blockchain community, as a concept it need not involve distributed ledger technology at all. There are multiple possible approaches to the design of a technological system offering a digital representation of money with an associated programming facility; what is more important than the specific technical approach is the guarantee that the system will in fact cohere into a unitary product offering, rather than a service offering associated with an otherwise independent non-programmable digital money.

The cryptocurrency industry isn't replacing Wall Street just yet. But inventors and entrepreneurs are working on it, with some initial success, albeit modest. In this case, an option premium of 0.0202 bitcoin paid via a smart contract may have just become the proof of concept.

The UK Jurisdiction Taskforce published a legal statement on the status of crypto-assets and the enforceability of smart contracts under English private law. From this foundation, it is hoped that both regulators and the courts can build a framework which will support the development and use of crypto-assets and smart contracts.

On November 18, 2019, the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, which is part of The English Law Society's LawTech Delivery Panel, published its Legal Statement on the status of cryptoassets and smart contracts (the Legal Statement).

Digital Asset's DAML is a smart contract language that is designed to work with blockchain platforms. DAML cannot be used on its own - it needs a platform underneath it. What's unique about DAML, however, is that we're enabling it to work on more than just blockchain platforms.

ISDA, Clifford Chance, R3 and the Singapore Academy of Law have published a new whitepaper that provides analysis on the legal issues relating to the use of smart derivatives contracts on distributed ledger technology (DLT).

A joint study by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Deutsche Bundesbank concluded that demand for programmable payments is rising in Germany. Smart contracts could be incorporated into conventional payment systems, but the extent to which they can be implemented and applied is limited. However, tokenized commercial bank money and central bank digital currency could bring the greatest functional benefit in terms of settling programmable payments. Both options are well-suited settlement solutions for programmable payments on account of the expected credibility of their issuers and their use within a binding legal framework.