Blockchain Developer Certification Practice

How do smart contract accounts differ from external accounts?

1. Smart contract accounts are owned by humans.

2. Smart contract accounts exist in their own universe.

3. Smart contract accounts are specific to one network.

4. Smart contract accounts cannot hold ether.

The correct answer is: Smart contract accounts are specific to one network.

Smart contract accounts differ from external accounts in several fundamental ways, one of which is network specificity. The correct answer highlights that smart contract accounts are specific to one network, which means that a smart contract deployed on one blockchain (like Ethereum) cannot operate on another blockchain unless it has been specifically redeployed on that other network. Each blockchain has its own rules, consensus mechanisms, and state, making smart contracts bound to the ecosystem they are created in. Understanding smart contracts requires recognizing that they are code that runs on the blockchain, and their execution is subject to the blockchain's unique environment. Therefore, they are not universally applicable across different blockchains. This characteristic is essential for developers to acknowledge when building decentralized applications or deploying contracts, as it influences interoperability and migration strategies. The other choices do not accurately describe the nature of smart contract accounts. Specifically, smart contracts are not owned by humans (as suggested in the first choice), they operate within the parameters of the blockchain they are deployed on (contradicting the notion of a universe), and they can indeed hold ether when deployed on Ethereum or similar blockchains, which is a key functionality of smart contract accounts.