Smart contracts are highly essential in the Web3 world for the trusted transactions and agreements they enable among anonymous parties free from central authority or external enforcement. Powerful as smart contracts can be, we haven’t seen them become more mainstream as there are still major obstacles to surmount, both economically and technically.

To alleviate the present plight and boost a wider adoption of smart contracts, a solution needs to be in place to effectively relieve the burden of paying huge blockchain fees while making it easier to jog between multiple blockchains for the best possible experience in developing and utilizing dApps.

Though named with the word “contract”, a smart contract is not a law-enforceable written or spoken agreement as what we normally would have for things like business arrangement, employment, tenancy etc. Instead, a smart contract is more of a computer program that is expected to automate actions according to predetermined conditions without any intermediary.

As natural outcomes of the blockchain technology, smart contracts are endowed with features of transparency and immutability, thus establishing security and trust among all involved parties. With code and agreements therein assuring the automatic running of things, smart contracts are helping businesses greatly by saving time and money while creating new opportunities.

But what is holding things up for smart contracts to be more mainstream?

Main Barriers to Break Down

Interoperability

Interoperability in the blockchain world refers to multiple blockchains being able to interact, exchange assets and information, and collaborate, thus allowing for shared economic activity between different blockchain networks. Interoperability in smart contracts can reduce development difficulty by allowing developers to work on different blockchains and create cross-chain applications and enrich the on-chain experience of dApp users.

However, such interoperability is not a common feature that most blockchains would have, as each one of them is constructed with varying standards and code bases, meaning companies that intend to enter into a smart contract and run business together need to adopt the same cryptocurrency.

Given the high value fluctuation in crypto, it is unrealistic to expect large businesses to use only one specific cryptocurrency but many, and almost all smart contracts are now closely tied to a specific, distinct blockchain, all making it more challenging to get different protocols to work together.

Fees

Blockchain, as the technology which most smart contracts are built upon, requires a fee to be paid for validating and recording every transaction on the distributed ledger. This fee is necessary because blockchains rely on miners to carry out the computational work required to add new blocks to the network. Without it, there would be no incentive for miners to participate in the process.

Blockchain fees can be unstable and subject to change based on network traffic and value fluctuation of currency. What’s more, for on-chain activities that go across different blockchains, more expenses may arise from the need to exchange cryptocurrencies, since most blockchains have their own designated crypto tokens.

For a business owner, gas fees could be a major problem in moving operations to a blockchain-enabled smart contract. As for individual users who wish to use blockchains to protect themselves in a business deal, the required fees can be too expensive for them to afford. A fee structure without charges would be preferable, but unlikely to go through.

In Finding Solutions

The above listed problems demand effective solutions to actually alter the current situation and pave the way for the mass adoption of smart contracts.

To increase the interoperability of smart contracts, there can be a solution to enable developers who hold neither the token nor the wallet address on a certain blockchain to deploy their smart contracts. To make this happen, the infrastructure would be of greater importance in, for instance, paying the gas fee for transactions from other blockchains. This would help developers skip the step of registering wallets and increase the circulation of tokens between multiple blockchains.

To lower the cost, it would be ideal to send multiple events in one call, so that more than one event could be executed in one block with lower gas fee. Also, authorization of external accounts should be added into the smart contract based on the signed private key, so as to be able to send activity instructions on behalf of them. This will effectively help developers deploy a new contract or conduct a transaction without having to exchange their cryptos for the token of the target blockchain. Corporate organizations can also utilize this feature to establish a mechanism to help players pay gas fees, thus attracting more potential users and prospering their own ecosystems.

Rangers Protocol has been striving to provide comprehensive blockchain infrastructures to facilitate both the development and usage of complex applications while promoting the adoption of smart contracts. These could all be the direction Rangers Protocol heads to in its future technical exploration.

About Rangers Protocol

Rangers Protocol is the backbone of a Web3 engine for creating immersive Web3 applications. It minimizes the development difficulty for Web3 developers and maximizes the user experience of its Web3 applications. Rangers Protocol provides comprehensive infrastructures for efficient complex-app development, successful cross-chain and mass distribution, diverse in-app NFT and DeFi features, and more. Through its full EVM compatibility, strategic industry partnerships, and curated all-in-one IDE, Rangers Protocol supports AAA and indie developers to succeed in the Web3 world.

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