Chaincode

Chaincode is a computer program that either provides functionalities for Enterprise transactions or state. It is useful to distinguish chaincode specific for an enterprise and chaincode that provides domain agnostic functions.

Fabric: The current trend in Fabric is to use the term chaincode to cover both enterprise specific and domain agnostic chaincode. Enterprise specific chaincode is what most people call smart contracts.

Chaincode - Smart contracts in Hyperledger Fabric. They encapsulate both the asset definitions and the business logic (or transactions) for modifying those assets.

Smart Contract

A smart contract is code – invoked by a client application external to the blockchain network – that manages access and modifications to a set of key-value pairs in the World State via Transaction. In Hyperledger Fabric, smart contracts are packaged as chaincode. Chaincode is installed on peers and then defined and used on one or more channels.