Elementary

Smart Contracts

Elementary Track 04
🏧

Vending Machine & Contracts

A vending machine dispenses a drink automatically when conditions are met. Insert money, get a drink — no trust or intermediary needed.

What You'll Learn

  • What smart contracts are and how they differ from traditional agreements
  • Core Solidity structure — state variable, function, event, modifier
  • The lifecycle from writing to deploying, calling, and changing state
👨‍💼
Traditional Contract

Requires intermediaries, courts, and banks. Enforcement takes time and money.

🤖
Smart Contract

Code is the contract. Executes automatically when conditions are met. Immutable.

⛓️
On-chain Storage

Every node holds a copy. Censorship-resistant. Anyone can verify the code.

💡 Nick Szabo proposed the "smart contract" concept in 1994. Ethereum (2015) was the first to implement general-purpose smart contracts.