A smart contract is like a computer protocol created to
A smart contract is like a computer protocol created to digitally verify, facilitate or enforce the negotiation of a creditable transaction as an agreement between buyer and seller, that is written into lines of code.
The code, as well as the agreement of buyer and seller, exist across a distributed ledger of Blockchain network. Smart contracts allow trusted agreements and transactions to be carried out among different anonymous parties with no need for a legal system, central authority or external enforcement mechanism.
Smart contracts render transactions that are transparent, traceable and irreversible.
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So, Are They Reversible?
One of the primary reasons people are embracing blockchain smart contracts is their ability to prevent any tampering with the coding after the completion of the transaction.
Similar to any other blockchain transactions, smart contracts too are nearly impossible to tamper with. The contracts deployed on a blockchain are immutable, meaning that once they are on the blockchain, they become final and the address and the code can’t be changed or modified.
However, there are certain methods whereby you can update or modify a smart contract.
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Ways of Updating Smart Contracts
- One way to modify the code is by creating an intermediary smart contract which will hold the address of the active smart contract. This way, all the transactions will be redirected to the active version with the function called DELEGATECALL. (So, you will be using the same contract address, but that contract will execute various smart contract code in the end. You can have a contract that manages the same address and storage, but forward all the transactions to an address that is stored in a variable.)
- Another way to update the code is by extracting all the information from the old contract and then insert it into a new version. Once done, update the address that your users will see.
- One more approach to this is by putting your logic code in a library. Use the CALL CODE feature, through libraries in solidity for calling the address. That way, the user data persists between the two versions. However, this has some limitation that the ABI of the logic contract has to stay the same over time.
Final Thoughts
Not just are the smart contracts safe and secure but also faster. They don’t require any 3rd party to bite the lion’s share of the transaction.
Since smart contracts are based on blockchain technology, they can’t be changed. However, people had to come up with methods to modify these contracts for making their modification and improvement possible.
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