NEAR Blockchain - Part 1, Getting the tools
Genrally web applications have three main parts of development. It contains a Backend, Frontend and API’s. Backend is used to store and retrive data, Frontend consists of everything that you browse through on the website and API’s(Application Programming Interface) communicates b/w Frontend and Backend.
But in blockchain, Database is not the backend. On blockchain, Smart Contracts are used as Backend for all functionalites. Different blockchain uses different technologies for developing Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts are genrally reffered as Contract too.
NEAR Blockchain uses Rust and AssemblyScript for Smart Contract development. Rust is a low level programming language which is a statically-typed and designed for performance and safety. Whereas, AssemblyScript is designed to develop web assembly applications with TypeScript like format.
You can develop Smart contract in any of the two language but AssemblySript is not recommended for financial applications(from official docs). NEAR contracts are compiled in WASM(web assembly) and then deployed to NEAR Blockchain. If you have some knowledge of Ethereum contract development, you will notice that ETH aso converts Solidity code to EVM Bytecode.
Set up dev environment
- Install Rust : https://www.rust-lang.org/
- AssembyScript : https://www.assemblyscript.org/ (if TypeScript works, it will too)
Do you know Rust, if YES-you are good to go. If not check out this video by FreeCodeCamp 👇
NOTE : If you know TypeScript or JavaScript, you can get started with AssemblyScript but Rust is recommended for deep diving into NEAR ecosystem.
You can checkout the official docs here : https://docs.near.org/docs/develop/basics/getting-started
We will be building our First contract in Part 2, follow BlockTrain: Learn Web3 to get notified !!
- Roadmaps: https://blocktrain.info/roadmaps
- Dev related: https://blocktrain.info/developer
- Non dev related: https://blocktrain.info/non-developer
- Hindi stuff: https://blocktrain.info/hindi
- Chains: https://blocktrain.info/chains
- Concepts: https://blocktrain.info/concepts
- Defi: https://blocktrain.info/defi
