A smart contract is a small piece of code deployed on a distributed ledger called blockchain network. It allows trusted transactions between pseudonymous parties without the need of a central authority.
By their own definition, transactions governed by a smart contract provide consistency, transparency and traceability. Moreover, the smart contract code is immutable and will be on the blockchain to stay, ensuring reliability and trustworthiness.
A smart contract is designed to complement current apps in scenarios like governance, digital ownership, voting and so on. Having a small footprint, a smart contract has its own limits, for instance it cannot replace an SPA app.
There are lots of benefits, out of which worth mentioning are the accuracy and transparency. Speed can also be a factor when it comes to automating manual tasks. By eliminating the need and cost of intermediaries we can also say that a smart contract is also efficient. Last but not least, since a smart contract is stored in the blockchain it provides a high level of security.
Ethereum was the first blockchain network designed with smart contracts in mind. Moreover, it's still the second largest cryptocurrency around and therefore has a large community. The EVM machine ensures execution of code in a safe manner and ensures the system cannot be cheated.
For testing our smart contracts we use the Sepolia network. Contracts deployed in production run on Arbitrum network due to speed and also costs associated to deploying the contracts. If necessary, we consider also Mainnet in the future.
Currently, we support Metamask and Coinbase Wallet. There is also the WalletConnect configured, however it has not been tested thoroughly, so it may have glitches.
In essence, WEB3 is the next iteration of internet which relies on decentralization and empowering users to have control over the data they expose on the wire. It's also about a trustless environment where cryptographic blockchain and code behind the smart contracts intertwine to make sure security, transparency and fairness.
Basically, you just need to have a digital crypto wallet address. There are many out there, for starters we recommend you to use Metamask or Coinbase Wallet. Make sure you follow the instructions correctly and that you properly safeguard the wallet recovery key. After all, in WEB3, responsibility is passed on to you, not a central authority.
If you are yearning for more information, a good website is the official Ethereum Foundation DAPP page. If you want to get even deeper into technical stuff, you can read the whitepaper here.