Choosing the smart contract platform

Smart contracts are self-executing contracts that can be deployed using any blockchain application that supports the execution of basic scripts in its transactions. Most blockchain platforms support a domain-specific language. We have already come across the language used in Bitcoin transactions, which is called Script, a stack-based language with limited capabilities. Although Script is a Turing-incomplete language, it only has a few options that can be used to create complex transactions. It can create multi-signature transactions, payment channels, and atomic cross-chain trading. In addition to this, Bitcoin can create a transaction with a lock time. A transaction can be created but locked for a certain amount of time in case the creator wants to invalidate the transaction before the lock time expires. Although Bitcoin's Script language...