Smart contracts and the future of digital transactions in Vietnam
In less than 12 months, Vietnam has consecutively finalized multiple critical legal frameworks for digital data, blockchain, and digital assets. As a result, smart contracts are no longer concepts associated solely with crypto, but are increasingly becoming a new execution mechanism for electronic contracts, digital transactions, and public services in the digital economy.
Three legal building blocks for 2025-2026
The first building block is the Law on Digital Technology Industry, passed by the National Assembly on June 14, 2025, and effective from January 1, 2026. For the first time, Vietnamese law officially defines digital assets as a form of civil asset represented in data form, while also opening sandbox mechanisms for sectors such as AI, blockchain, digital assets, and semiconductors.
🔑 Read more: Law on digital technology industry takes effect from January 1, 2026
The second building block is Resolution 222/2025/QH15 establishing the International Financial Center of Ho Chi Minh City (VIFC-HCMC). Beginning in February 2026, the sandbox at VIFC-HCMC permits the testing of models related to crypto assets, digital asset trading, and digital payments within a dedicated legal supervision environment.
The third building block is Decision 11/2026/QĐ-TTg, issued on March 28, 2026, and effective from May 19, 2026, requiring 20 national databases to interconnect under the National Digital Architecture Framework. As data becomes interconnected across sectors, operational processes must be automated, verifiable, and transparently executed, forming the foundation for smart contracts to play a central role in the digital economy.
Why are smart contracts becoming a strategic priority?
According to forecasts from the World Economic Forum (WEF), by 2030 approximately 10% of global GDP equivalent to nearly USD 16 trillion, will be tokenized and operated on programmable data platforms. In that trend, smart contracts are becoming a foundational infrastructure layer of the digital economy.
In Vietnam, the digital economy is expected to contribute around 20% of GDP and may reach a scale of USD 90-200 billion by 2030. To achieve this target, transaction and operational models must be automated, transparent, and capable of real-time verification.
Smart contracts are precisely the technology that enables this transformation. Beyond reducing transaction costs and minimizing reliance on intermediaries, smart contracts also create “digital trust” between parties without requiring prior relationships or repeated manual verification.
What is a smart contract? Core concepts and characteristics
From a technical perspective, a smart contract is a piece of code deployed on a blockchain that can automatically execute once predefined conditions are met. When triggered, a smart contract can perform various tasks such as transferring digital assets, authenticating transactions, issuing digital certificates, or recording data onto the blockchain without intermediaries.
From a legal perspective, smart contracts are considered a form of “self-executing contract.” In Vietnam, although there is not yet a dedicated legal framework specifically for smart contracts, this model can still be implemented based on the Civil Code 2015, the Law on Electronic Transactions 2023, and experimental mechanisms such as the VIFC-HCMC sandbox. When legal requirements and mutual consent are fully satisfied, smart contracts may carry equivalent value to traditional electronic contracts.
The concept of smart contracts was first proposed by Nick Szabo in 1994 and gained widespread adoption from 2015 onward with the emergence of Ethereum and the EVM. A modern smart contract generally possesses four core characteristics: automatic execution based on programmed conditions, immutability after deployment, transparency on distributed ledgers, and operation based on verified data from trusted sources (oracles).
How do smart contracts operate on Blockchain Layer 1?
Smart contracts can only operate effectively when deployed on Blockchain Layer 1, the core infrastructure layer that provides consensus mechanisms, virtual machines for code execution, and immutable ledgers for recording data.
🔑 Read more: What Is Blockchain Layer 1? Operating Mechanisms and Strategic Importance
The smart contract lifecycle on Layer 1
A typical lifecycle consists of five stages:
Writing and testing the code;
Deploying the contract onto the network (where it receives a unique address and is permanently stored on the ledger);
Parties interacting with the contract through digitally signed transactions;
The virtual machine executing the code and generating outcomes;
Validator nodes recording the results and execution traces into a new block.
This process occurs within seconds. On a national blockchain capable of processing over 1,200 transactions per second, such as NDAChain, smart contracts are sufficiently fast to support real-time operational scenarios.
The role of EVM and why layer 1 is the “Native environment” of smart contracts
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is currently considered the most widely adopted global standard for smart contracts. When a Blockchain Layer 1 is EVM-compatible, contracts written in Solidity or Vyper can be deployed with minimal modification, enabling Vietnamese enterprises to leverage the international blockchain developer ecosystem and development tools.
🔑 Read more: What Is Blockchain Layer 1? Operating Mechanisms and Strategic Importance
Layer 2 solutions may improve transaction speed and optimize costs, but the ultimate authentication layer and legal validity must still be anchored on Layer 1. Therefore, applications involving e-government, citizen data, digital identity, or national digital assets require operation on a sovereign Blockchain Layer 1 with strong data governance and high reliability.
Three key smart contract application groups in Vietnam’s digital economy
When viewed in the context of Vietnam in 2026, three major smart contract application groups stand out, closely aligned with the National Digital Architecture Framework.
Electronic contracts and automated financial transactions
Smart contracts enable the automation of terms such as payments, deposits, disbursements, and breach handling. Within digital asset models and sandboxes such as VIFC-HCMC, smart contracts can autonomously execute order matching, ownership transfer, and transparent transaction recording on blockchain, while still ensuring regulatory oversight capabilities.
Supply chain and origin traceability
In logistics and manufacturing, smart contracts can automatically trigger payments when IoT sensors confirm that goods have been delivered under the required conditions. This model is particularly suitable for industries such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, timber, and coffee sectors currently under pressure to comply with international standards such as EUDR (European Deforestation Regulation) and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism). According to the World Economic Forum and IBM, blockchain combined with smart contracts can reduce supply-chain verification costs by 20–40%.
🔑 Read more: Blockchain in Traceability: From Trend to Global Standard
Digital identity and interconnected public services
Smart contracts also form the foundation for issuing and managing Verifiable Credentials (VCs), enabling identity and document verification within seconds. As 20 national databases begin interconnection under Decision 11/2026/QĐ-TTg, many cross-sector administrative procedures can be automated through smart contracts from synchronizing residence and insurance data to healthcare records while simultaneously generating transparent verification trails on blockchain.
🔑 Read more: NDAKey: A Self-Sovereign Identity Management Solution for Protecting Citizens’ Data in the Digital Age
NDAChain - A smart contract platform for Vietnam’s national blockchain
Smart contracts can only deliver value at national scale when deployed on a Blockchain Layer 1 that is sufficiently reliable, capable of data governance, and compliant with legal requirements. This is precisely the role NDAChain is positioned to fulfill within Vietnam’s digital ecosystem.
🔑 Read more: NDAChain - Blockchain Layer 1 Make in Vietnam
The difference between Permissioned Blockchains and Public Blockchains
On public blockchains, anyone can deploy smart contracts, including unaudited code. On a permissioned blockchain such as NDAChain, smart contracts may only be issued by identified organizations and are governed by 49 public–private validator nodes, including the National Data Association, SunGroup, Zalo, Masan, MISA, Sovico, VNVC, and others.
This model trades unlimited openness for three attributes aligned with national requirements: clearly identified participants, compliance with the 2025 Personal Data Protection Law, and legal traceability capabilities.
Architecture supporting smart contracts and the emerging legal framework
NDAChain is developed with EVM compatibility, supports Solidity, and operates on a PoA-qBFT consensus mechanism with throughput exceeding 1,200 transactions per second. On this infrastructure, smart contracts can directly integrate with ecosystem products such as NDATrace for origin traceability and NDAKey for self-sovereign identity.
🔑 Read more: NDAChain - What Makes Vietnam’s National Blockchain Platform Different?
As digital assets gain legal recognition under the Law on Digital Technology Industry and the VIFC-HCMC sandbox opens supervised experimentation space, smart contracts on a “Make in Vietnam” national blockchain are becoming the natural choice, allowing enterprises to leverage the new legal framework while keeping data on trusted infrastructure operated by Vietnamese stakeholders.
Opportunities and challenges for Vietnamese enterprises
Smart contracts open up a new class of business models, but they also require enterprises to restructure operational processes and strengthen technical capabilities.
Four emerging opportunities
Contract automation that shortens payment cycles;
Digital financial products participating in supervised crypto-asset markets through the VIFC-HCMC sandbox;
Origin traceability capabilities supporting EUDR, CBAM, and DPP compliance for Vietnamese exports to the EU;
Becoming solution providers for 20 national databases.
Three key challenges
Legal gaps: enterprises still need to combine smart contracts with traditional electronic contracts;
Skills gaps: Vietnam still faces a shortage of developers proficient in Solidity and smart contract security;
Security risks: coding vulnerabilities can lead to asset losses, making smart contract audits a mandatory process.
Smart contracts and the advancement of digital trust infrastructure
The question “What is a smart contract?” in 2026 cannot be separated from a larger question: what infrastructure will Vietnam use to build its digital economy, and who will control it? As the Law on Digital Technology Industry, the VIFC-HCMC sandbox, and the framework of 20 national databases all come into force in the first half of 2026, smart contracts are moving beyond the realm of “crypto concepts” to become operational tools for electronic contracts, digital assets, origin traceability, and public services.NDAChain is positioned as Vietnam’s national Blockchain Layer 1 infrastructure, where smart contracts can operate within the framework of Vietnamese law, a foundational building block for a transparent, efficient, prosperous, and Vietnamese-led data economy.
Experience NDAChain Demo for free: Enterprises, government agencies, and developer communities can register for NDAChain’s smart contract testing environment to evaluate EVM compatibility, benchmark performance, and design use cases. Register for a demo at https://ndachain.vn/en
