Identifying the legal dimension of smart contract under the light of vietnamese contract law

Abstract

Smart contracts - one of the newest applications of blockchain technology - has been expected to be a revolution in forming and executing contracts in the digital economy. As being defined by two basic elements (i) a software program written in computer language, which runs on blockchain technology; and (ii) automatically self-executed transactions, smart contracts have advantages in executing numerous transactions in digital environment. However, under the light of traditional contract law, this article indicates that smart contracts still base on mutual consent and need to be judged by the court in various cases. Besides, smart contracts have yet become a breakthrough to replace traditional contracts in all areas of life due to, inter alia, their lack of flexibility. Nevertheless, together with the development of the blockchain technology, further studies should be conducted in order to clarify the impact of smart contracts on the traditional contract law.