Many projects featuring smart contracts have been either rumored to be in the works or have proven to be in actual development by some very smart people. As of today, the concept of the smart contract is a reality, a reality that
you can download and use right now, in less than 30 seconds.
No sidechains, no alt coins, no off blockchain transactions, no esoterica. Veritaseum's UltraCoin is ready for beta testing. This smart contract bitcoin wallet allows you to create simple and highly complex contracts for the trading of financial value across more than 75,000 tickers representing every major asset class across every major global exchange.
What do Smart Contracts have to do with the evolution of finance, banking and investment?
Well, practically all financial, investment and banking activity is contractual in nature. Unfortunately, many of us tend to forget or disregard the true nature of these transactions, which leaves room for some very unpleasant results - Bernie Madoff, Bear Stearns, the European sovereign debt crisis, Man Financial, Cyprus and Lehman Brothers are just a few recent examples. The use of smart contracts allows the autonomous enforcement of contractual terms regardless the parties credit risk, scienter, malicious intent solvency. It also allows small entities to perform as if they were large global entities.
Let's take global trading, investment and hedging for example - and remember, this entire exercise and application is possible solely due to the abilities of "programmable money", the stuff from which these applications are built.
Veritaseum's UltraCoin wallet allows anybody who can read a ticker to trade exposure to nearly any publicly traded asset or asset class, to so now, and to do so without going through centralized exchanges along with the inherent counterparty and credit risks therein - and they can do so for nearly any amount, at a fraction of the traditional costs.
What does this mean for banks who derive most of their income from fees stemming from these investment and brokerages-type transactions when their constituency can D-I-Y at less cost and more safety? Reference Stress Test on Banks? Earnings Facing the Veritaseum UltraCoin Value Transaction Platform...
Anyone who doubts that this works, how it works or anything else can simply download a wallet and see for themselves. Once downloaded, blank all the input bozes in the "Markets" tab and click search to see what tradeable contracts are available - or make your own.
See the future of finance on CNBCDownload the UltraCoin client now (for Windows and Mac).
