Smart vs. Ricardian Contracts: What's the Difference?

“ Why one needs a smart contract in the first place ?”

“ Is there anything wrong with traditional contracts ?”

Smart Contracts

real-time self-executing;

autonomously verifying;

self-enforcing;

cost-saving;

third-parties-free;

tamper-proof;

secure;

decentralized;

accurate.

Ricardian contracts

The main characteristics of this type of contract are the following:

human and machine-parsable;

documents for both parties are printable and physically signed;

all forms (displayed, printed, parsed) are manifestly equivalent;

it can be identified securely, where security means that any attempts to change the linkage between a reference and the contract are impractical.

The Difference Between Smart and Ricardian Contracts