What Is the Concept of “Turing Completeness” in the Context of Smart Contract Platforms?

Turing completeness means a smart contract platform's scripting language is capable of simulating any Turing machine. In practical terms, it means the language can perform any logical computation that a modern computer can, including loops and conditional statements.

This is essential for building complex financial instruments like derivatives, which require intricate logic to determine payouts, collateral management, and expiration conditions. Ethereum is Turing complete; Bitcoin's script is not.