 In 1998, the term was utilized to describe objects in rights management service layer of the system "The Stanford Infobus", which was a part of Stanford Digital Library Project.A smart contract does not necessarily constitute a valid binding agreement at law.Some legal academics claim that smart contracts are not legal agreements, but rather means of performing obligations deriving from other agreements such as technological means for the automation of payment obligations or obligations consisting in the transfer of tokens or cryptocurrencies.