Empirical Insights in the Current Development of Smart Contracts

Blockchain technology enables a lot of knowledge possibilities in an even more digital business environment. Besides the well-known bitcoin application, another implementation so called smart contracts recently arised. Smart contracts profit from the blockchain mechanism benefits (e.g., transaction security). A huge advantage of smart contracts is, that they provide trust between transaction partners without integrating a third party. Practice has already noticed their advantages and implementing smart contracts more and more into their business. However, research is still under development and a common scientifical foundation is still missing. Particularly, research lacks in empirical and practical findings. This paper responds to that gap. Conducting an expert study relevant data was collected and analyzed regarding empirical standards. The results we found and present in this on-going research paper give insights about basic aspects, challenges in the implementation as well as the use cases of smart contracts