Disclaimer: This research is part of the Summer Research Scholar Program project "Trust Mechanism Design: Blockchain for Social Good," led by Prof. Luyao Zhang at Duke Kunshan University 2022. The summer research scholar Yutong Sun is a senior student majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science.

Part I: Research Summary

Information

“SoK: Connecting Contract Theory to Smart Contract” (work in progress)

corresponding author: Prof. Luyao Zhang

student co-author: Yutong Sun

Abstract

With the development of blockchain technology, blockchain has
achieved more and more applications, and smart contract is one
of them. And smart contract brings the typical characteristics of
blockchain such as decentralized, efficient, and transparent to the
contract field. Making contracts is an indispensable part of the econ-
omy and business. As one of the most important theories in the
economic field, contract theory has been well explored and applied
to solve practical problems in many fields since the last century,
such as insurance, production, and policy making. However, in
the process of making contracts, there are still problems such as
information asymmetry that cannot be solved by contract theory.
At this time, due to the decentralized characteristics of intelligent
contracts, smart contracts can be introduced to solve the problems
that cannot be solved by these contract theories. At present, many
scholars have studied how to apply smart contracts to the financial
field, but few have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the rela-
tionship between smart contracts and contract theory. Therefore,
in this article, we review the articles on smart contract and contract
theory, find out the relationship between them, and conduct an
in-depth comprehensive analysis on how to use smart contracts
to advance existing contract theory and solve real-world issues in
making agreements. In addition, we also propose risks and chal-
lenges that may arise after applying smart contracts, and provide
clues to solve them in future research.

Part II: Related Research

1. Exploratory Research Articles Published on SciEcon insights

Yutong Sun. 2022. “Supply Chain Finance Risk Identification and the Corrective Role of the Blockchain” SciEcon Insights.

URL：https://medium.com/p/52e563e1a78b/edit

2. Academic Research in progress

“SoK: Non-fungible tokens on Blockchain” (work in progress)

corresponding author: Prof. Luyao Zhang

student co-author: Yutong Sun

URL: https://srs.pubpub.org/pub/v4rzkmpb/draft

Part III. Summer Research Scholar Spotlight

This is Yutong Sun, the research assistant at SciEcon CIC and a senior student majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science at Duke Kunshan University. Her research interest is in financial technology and financial mathematics. Previously, she has published some research papers on commercial leverage ratios, stock price-predicting, and stock quantitative investment strategy using machine learning models. And in the summer of 2022, she has done researches related to smart contract, contract theory, and Non-Fungible Token with Prof. Luyao Zhang.