If you don't know, "smart contracts" are self-executing contracts with predetermined rules. They are stored on the blockchain and can be used to automate the exchange of money, property, shares, or anything of value. Smart contracts are created using programming code, and once uploaded to the blockchain, they become immutable and irreversible.

## All About Smart Contracts

The term "smart contract" is understood as a computer protocol used to facilitate, verify, or enforce a contract. They can be used to track assets throughout their lifecycle, from creation to destruction.

Nick Szabo first proposed smart contracts in 1996 as a way to enable secure transactions without the need for third-party intermediaries. Today, smart contracts are used to streamline various business processes, from supply chain management to land registry.

The use of smart contracts can help to reduce costs, speed up transaction times, and increase transparency. Traditionally, when buying a car from a dealership, you would need to sign a contract and then make a payment to the dealership. With a smart contract, you could instead send your payment directly to the smart contract.

The smart contract would then release the funds to the dealership once the car has been delivered. This kind of transaction is more efficient and reduces the chances of fraud or dispute.

## How Smart Contracts are Changing the Blockchain Landscape

Smart contracts are important innovations in the blockchain space. By allowing for the execution of contracts and transactions without the need for a third party, smart contracts are set to revolutionise how we do business.

For example, smart contracts streamline supply chains, ensuring that goods are delivered on time and that payments are made promptly. They can also be used to create immutable records of transactions, preventing fraud and protecting data.

In addition, smart contracts can be used to create Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs), which are autonomous organizations that do not have a single entity in control.

The possibilities for smart contracts are endless. They are already starting to change the way we think about blockchain technology.

## Businesses Already Using Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are quickly becoming a popular tool in many different industries. They allow businesses to streamline a wide range of processes, reduce costs, and securely store and transmit data. Some examples of businesses already using smart contracts include online retailers, financial services providers, transportation companies, and healthcare providers.

Online retailers like Amazon use smart contracts to facilitate secure payments between buyers and sellers. With smart contracts, shoppers can purchase items quickly and easily without going through the intermediary of a payment processor like [PayPal](https://www.paypal.com/im/home) or Visa. This reduces costs for merchants and helps to ensure that transactions are faster and more secure.

Similarly, financial services providers are also turning to smart contracts to streamline processes within their organisations. For example, investment firms can use smart contracts to automate the transfer of assets among different parties, thereby maximizing efficiency and minimising the potential for errors or delays.

Likewise, insurance providers can use smart contracts to automate the management of payouts in the event of claim settlements or damage assessments. Overall, it is clear that smart contracts have vast potential to improve businesses across all industries.

## The Future of Smart Contracts

They are an integral part of blockchain technology, serving as the foundation for all transactions on the blockchain. These contracts use programming logic to execute various actions, from completing simple tasks like tracking payments to complex operations such as updating smart property records.

The advantages of smart contracts are numerous, ranging from increased security and efficiency to streamlined processes and decreased transaction costs. As the technology continues to develop, smart contracts seem poised to play an increasingly important role in the future of the blockchain.

Whether used for financial, legal, or other purposes, smart contracts will be crucial in powering smarter and more connected systems worldwide. 

Given their growing popularity and significant potential benefits, it seems likely that smart contracts will only become more prevalent in years to come.


Smart Contracts are Revolutionising Blockchain

[Quantum Blockchain Technologies](https://quantumblockchaintechnologies.co.uk/) share price (AIM: QBT) came into the investors' focus last month as the company announced great results due to its AI and mining operations.

Stocks of this blockchain investment company jumped over 20% after the group revealed it filed a patent application for a pioneering new Bitcoin mining algorithm that runs on a quantum computation model and is qubit-based.

The company said it plans to conduct further aggressive R&D and investment tactics within the blockchain sector, including crypto mining and other apps.

The Quantum Blockchain Technologies' share price will very likely depend on the professional recently appointed by the company to lead an AI research group and find the optimal way of mining Bitcoin.

Usually, investors are eager to give money when they believe their profit will come faster. With quantum computers, some exact calculations are conducted much more quickly than home computers would do them. Nowadays, there are concerns that quantum computers could be grinding crypto mining operations needed to create new blocks. That would mean that these computers would be privileged before other miners and therefore present a threat to proof-of-work blockchain consensus by disturbing the decentralization and security of those blockchains.

However, this also means that the whole process would come to a new level, with the mining process becoming increasingly automated. In the end, this would present more significant profits for the stockholders. Along with the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miner, this technology will most likely increase the hashing speed compared to other ASIC announced by competitors.

## Quantum Hopes for More Speed Increase

Quantum Blockchain Technologies' share price could keep its bullish trend for a while. The company has confirmed plans to create new partnerships with other start-ups within the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

QBT CEO Francesco Gardin confirmed impressive progress in all R&D areas and added the expectation is "higher performance than originally estimated".

Gardin said results will be verified before any "cooling techniques", which could allow for further increases in speed, are implemented.
Still, as we already mentioned, some analysts advocate theories about quantum computers posing a serious challenge to the [Bitcoin](/coins/btc) blockchain security.

According to the last reports, approximately 25% of the active Bitcoins are exposed to a possible quantum attack, meaning they are usually stored in an exposed wallet. And even though transferring tokens to a new p2pkh address would temporarily help, one may still be affected if all the people who hold vulnerable coins do the same. 

That would bring us to a situation where, in the case of a major hack such as Mt. Gox, the price of Bitcoin (and therefore of Quantum Blockchain Technologies share price) would plunge together with the investors' confidence.

Quantum computers could act in the way they destroy the Bitcoin transaction process because of their speed. However, there is a cure for that as well. A new type of cryptography dubbed 'post-quantum cryptography' is expected to be intrinsically immune to quantum attacks. However, these types of algorithms are still in diapers and are still being studied.

At the time of writing, the price of Quantum Blockchain Technologies shares stood at 2.84 GBX, down by 1.90%.



quantum blockchain technologies share price 

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Share Price Analysis

Ready for some [Chainlink](https://chain.link/) news? Let's start by explaining what it is.

[Chainlink](/coins/link), then, is a decentralised oracle network intended to function as middleware between smart contracts on innovative contracting platforms and external databases, authorizing smart contracts to safely access off-chain data feeds.

## Chainlink History

Developed in September 2017, the Chainlink protocol was officially launched on mainnet in May 2019. The crypto coin strives to solve the oracle problem, an inherent restriction of blockchain networks that controls them from linking to external databases that exist off-chain. 

Chainlink delivers a comprehensive range of decentralised services via a network of autonomous oracle node operators to smart contracts, including:

•	Price Feeds - financial market data used to control a large portion of the DeFi economy, 
•	Verifiable Randomness - allowing the creation of dynamic NFTs and unbiased on-chain gaming applications,
•	Proof of Reserve- supplying proof of off-chain collateral that supports stable coins and cross-chain tokens,
•	Keeper Network- transaction automation bots that deliver independent DevOps services.

The newly published Chainlink 2.0 whitepaper also widens the abilities of Decentralised Oracle Networks (DONs). It explains how the Chainlink network matures to deliver tamper-proof data and secure off-chain computation. Chainlink oracle networks allow the creation of highly scalable and privacy-preserving hybrid smart contracts that connect on-chain and off-chain infrastructure.

The latest scalability upgrade of the Chainlink network, Off-Chain reporting, reduced oracle updates' gas prices by 90%, representing the first move towards attaining the plans mentioned in the whitepaper.

## Chainlink Technology
 
The decentralised oracle network Chainlink allows smart contracts to safely interact with real-world data and services beyond the blockchain networks. Like blockchain, Chainlink is not a monolithic network; rather, it is an infrastructure and framework for creating blockchain-agnostic oracle networks that extend the capacities of blockchains and layer-2 protocols.

Chainlink oracle network comprises multiple autonomous oracle nodes that assemble data from various autonomous data deliverers, aggregate it into a single data point, and supply it on-chain to be consumed by smart contracts. Chainlink's adaptable architecture allows for highly configurable oracle networks that can be composed of any preference of data providers and node operators that use distinct network parameters such as update frequency, fee payment amounts, and more.

Chainlink nodes are used by experienced DevOps infrastructure providers, top-notch companies, and professional data providers who deliver smart contracts with access to cryptographically signed data for further security assurances. Because of its adaptable infrastructure, Chainlink can deliver any data or computation to any smart contract application functioning on any blockchain network.

## Chainlink News

Chainlink (LINK) is currently selling at $15.38 in its USD rate. LINK has a complete market cap of $7,181,227,454 with the 24-hour bartering volume of $423,830,966.00. This data makes Chainlink (LINK) rank 23 in the crypto coin market.

In 2022 forecasts, the LINK price is predicted to cross an average price level of $20.58. Chainlink's anticipated minimum price value by the end of the present year should be $19.99. Moreover, LINK can attain the highest price level of $22.56.
 



Chainlink News, History, and Technology

Blockchain and cryptocurrency market technology should be taught in schools, according to the incoming New York mayor.

The comments come just days after New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams said he wanted to receive his first three wage packets in Bitcoin (BTC).

His latest comments, during an interview with [CNN](https://edition.cnn.com/), reinforced his stance on cryptocurrency technology, with Adams suggesting schools should be teaching crypto.

## 'The New Way of Thinking'

He said: ‘We must open our schools to teach the technology, to teach this new way of thinking.’

Adams described cryptocurrency as ‘a new way of paying for goods and services throughout the entire globe’ as he urged schools to prepare students for the ‘new way of thinking’ created by by blockchain technology and digital assets.

In part, his call for crypto education was prompted by his experience with young New Yorkers. He told CNN: ‘When I talked about blockchain and Bitcoin, young people on the street stopped and asked me “What is that?”.’

## New York Should Remain a Centre of Innovation

The comments by Adams received a mixed reaction on social media, with some saying cryptocurrency technology ‘must’ become part of school curricula and others arguing schools should remain focused on teaching core subjects and the basic concepts of finance first.

During the interview, Adams suggested he will encourage businesses in New York to accept cryptocurrencies as payment. While he insisted such a move would be taken carefully to ‘get it right’, Adams insisted it was necessary to ensure New York remains a ‘center of innovation, no matter what that innovation is’.

If the school plan suggested by Adams was implemented, New York wouldn’t be the first US city to do so.

Earlier this year, a bill was passed by the Georgia House of Representatives which called for state education officials to implement in high schools a financial literacy programme which would include crypto.


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Smart Contracts are Revolutionising Blockchain

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Share Price Analysis

Chainlink News, History, and Technology

Teach Global Blockchain Technology in Schools: NY Mayor