As featured in Acceleration Economy Network

If you hang out in blockchain circles for more than a moment you will undoubtedly hear about smart contracts. In 2017, when blockchain was the disruptive technology du jour, crypto pundits at the time claimed that smart contracts would quickly disintermediate escrow companies, freight forwarders, medical insurance claim processors, financial clearinghouses, and middlemen across all industries.

Five years later, none of these “disruptions” have happened nor are they close to happening. Traditional intermediaries continue to enjoy their place in their respective industries. While Ethereum, the crypto network which is the basis for the nascent but heavily hyped DeFi (Decentralized Finance) phenomenon, and the overhyped NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens), has come a long way in terms of market value, few smart contract applications founded on it have scaled to a degree to pose a threat to traditional contractual media or networks.

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