Explore the world of blockchain and smart contracts in this 24-minute conference talk from AmsterdamJS March 2018 Meetup. Dive into the fundamentals of Ethereum, smart contracts, and the blockchain developer ecosystem. Learn how JavaScript can be utilized for contract development, and gain insights into designing and deploying basic contracts. Follow along as the speaker, Mikhail Kuznetcov, a full stack developer from Amsterdam, demonstrates the contract life cycle and introduces key concepts such as Solidity, decentralized apps, and development tools like Truffle. Discover the potential of smart contracts in JavaScript through practical explanations and a live demo, covering topics from network setup to GUI implementation.