Smart Contracts and Token Standards Flashcards

What is a smart contract?

Answer: A self-executing program stored on a blockchain that runs when conditions are met

A smart contract is a self-executing program on a blockchain that automatically enforces and executes terms when predefined conditions are fulfilled.

Which programming language is most widely used to write Ethereum smart contracts?

Answer: Solidity

Solidity is Ethereum's primary programming language for writing smart contracts, with syntax influenced by JavaScript and C++.

What is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)?

Answer: The decentralized computation engine that executes smart contracts on Ethereum

The EVM is the runtime environment that executes smart contract bytecode across all Ethereum nodes in a deterministic way.

What is 'gas' in the context of Ethereum smart contracts?

Answer: A unit measuring computational effort required to execute operations on Ethereum

Gas measures the computational work needed to execute operations on Ethereum, preventing spam and incentivizing validators.

What is a reentrancy attack in smart contracts?

Answer: An exploit where a malicious contract repeatedly calls a vulnerable contract before the first call completes

A reentrancy attack exploits a vulnerability where a contract calls an external contract before updating its own state, enabling recursive fund draining.

What does it mean for a smart contract to be 'immutable'?

Answer: Once deployed, the contract code cannot be changed on the blockchain

Smart contract immutability means that once deployed to the blockchain, the code cannot be altered, ensuring trustless and predictable execution.