Yes smart contacts are here and they are not new. Is good for hive, but it was also about time. Dan Larimer wrote about making graphene a smart contact Blockchain back in 2017 and set the core features for what would be announced as SMT. But then steemit went silent and laid off everyone and was only implemented under hive engine.
6 years later we finally got back to it, and hopefully made people see the value in it.
Personally, I think smart contacts never really achieved the expectation the crypto community had in them.
The promise was intelligent, self reliance and independent entities. Remember the Airbnb smart locks that will self unlock to the carrier of the nft without human interaction? Or the self serving taxi charging and paying their own supplies like gas and issues.
RE: Smart Contracts Will Be A Game Changer For Hive