Vitalik Buterin took part in discussing “crypto law”, too. Ethereum founder replied to Twitter’s Cryptoecongames who claimed that cryptocurrencies “should’ve left “law out of it” & stayed a-legal”.
Buterin admitted that the term “smart contract” turned out to be not “boring” enough to describe technical aspects and realities of this technology. For example, only one US state – Tennessee – has officially recognized legal force of smart contracts for conduction of electronic transactions.
According to Ethereum developer Vlad Zamfir, he would prefer “stored procedures”, but he does not regret the terminology because
“it has been a great learning opportunity for everyone”.
As for the “smart contract” term itself, it was first proposed by Nick Szabo, bitcoin pioneer, in 1994. According to Investopedia,he invested digital currency Bit Gold in 1998 – Bitcoin was created ten years later. Szabo defined smart contracts as computerized transaction protocols that execute terms of a contract.