Following a summer of research by NSF REU undergraduate Sanjith Venkatesh, under the direction of PI Bill Maurer and supervision of graduate student researcher Nima Yolmo this presentation explains how Ethereum smart contracts have revolutionized the very meaning of how to conduct business in the digital space. Through its short history, we have seen more and more users starting to use these so-called “smart contracts” to simplify the relationship between two or more parties by defining functions that would automatically keep track of the tokens each person has as well as how to deal with disputes. However, such potential wasn't possible with these smart contracts just a few years ago. 

In this presentation Sanjith will analyze the development of these smart contracts as well as what the future holds. He will also look at how these contracts have been treated by programmers and the relationship between having a centralized program perform necessary functions versus a decentralized program.