Smart Contracts, Smart Risks: Governance for Code-as-Law

Smart contracts promise automation, efficiency, and trust—but when code becomes law, mistakes carry irreversible consequences. Smart Contracts, Smart Risks: Governance for Code-as-Law explores the hidden risks, governance challenges, and accountability gaps that emerge when software controls value, rights, and decisions.
This book takes a critical, analytical approach to smart contracts, examining how bugs, design flaws, and poor governance have led to major failures. It explains why “immutable code” is not the same as “correct code” and why governance must evolve alongside automation. Readers gain insight into how rules written in code intersect with human judgment, incentives, and responsibility.
Inside this book, readers will learn:
• Why smart contracts introduce new forms of systemic risk
• How governance failures amplify technical vulnerabilities
• Where automation breaks down without human oversight
• How to design checks, controls, and upgrade paths
• How to balance decentralization with accountability
Written in a thoughtful, risk-aware, and governance-focused style, this book is ideal for developers, auditors, policymakers, and Web3 leaders. Smart Contracts, Smart Risks equips readers to think critically about code-as-law—and to design systems that are not only smart, but safe.