Over the years I have had many conversations with people about Blockchain and how it is supposed to solve all our problems, but for the most part I think Blockchain is overrated and doesn’t solve any problem that can’t be solved in an easier way using less resources. Then as if Blockchain’s were not enough someone went and created smart contracts which are basically programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They typically are used to automate the execution of an agreement so that all participants can be immediately certain of the outcome, without any intermediary’s involvement or time loss. They can also automate a workflow, triggering the next action when conditions are met. – IBM Smart-Contracts Def
The major issue with a blockchain contract is that the contract is immutable so if there is a bug in the program no one can modify it to fix the issue. When warned about this potential problem the proponents of the smart-contract pretty much handwaved the concerns away stating that the issue is not that big a deal and people were just opposing them because they dislike smart-contracts and are sticks in mud etc etc.
Unfortunately, this is no longer a theoretical issue as the developers of the AkuDreams contract found out over the weekend. Due to a bug in the contract code $34 million, or 11,539 eth, is permanently locked into the AkuDreams contract forever. It cannot be retrieved by individual users or by the dev team..
This shows how dangerous it is to have a program that can’t be modified because no matter what we do we can’t ensure that code written will be 100% bug free in all the cases. When there is a bug in regular software be can push out a patch to fix it, but that is not an option for smart-contracts and that as you can see becomes an expensive issue.
Source: $34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever due to bad code
– Suramya