# What are smart contracts? ## The world computer Blockchains are designed to create a distributed, decentralized and shared digital ledger. This ledger can be used to record financial transactions (i.e., cryptocurrency). It can also be used for other purposes **Smart contract platforms use the distributed ledger to synchronize operations of a massive distributed computer.** Transactions contain code to run on the "computer". Nodes store the state of the distributed computer. After a block is validated, it is executed to update state **Smart contract platforms are massively parallelized computers.** However, this parallelization is not used to speed up the computers. Every node runs the same code. Parallelization maintains state synchronization --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://davidjosearaujo.gitbook.io/online-courses/blockchain-security/smart-contract-security/what-are-smart-contracts.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.