Traits

Traits are a bit like templates for smart contracts. They are a collection of public function definitions that describe names, input types, and output types. The purpose of a trait is to define a public interface to which a contract can conform either implicitly or explicitly. Implicit conformity is reached by implementing the functions defined in the trait. Explicit conformity requires not only implementing the trait, but also asserting the implementation.

Traits are used to ensure compatibility of your smart contracts and are deployed as separate contracts. Other contracts can then refer to these trait contracts and assert conformity. Basically, if there is a trait my-trait defined in a contract my-contract that is deployed on mainnet, another contract my-implementation can point to my-contract.my-trait. Traits are integral for dynamic inter-contract calls.