Get Started with Vyper: The Pythonic Ethereum Smart Contract Language

Get to know the first real alternative to Solidity smart contracts

Vyper is a Python 3 derived programming language for Ethereum Smart contracts, and an alternative to Solidity. All Vyper syntax is valid Python 3 syntax, although it has not adopted the entirety of Python 3’s feature set. Vyper is in its early stages of development, but the open source project is available for us to dive into and contribute to right now.

This article will outline the real principles and reasons behind Vyper, the differences to Solidity, and various syntax we should be aware of. Finally we will visit the installation process of Vpyer.

I personally like the project — looking at their example smart contracts is very seducing; they look and feel like Python; the contracts present themselves in a very familiar way Python developers have come to appreciate, and this simplicity is beneficial for reasons we will discuss further down the article.

If you would like to familiarise yourself with Solidity as well as Vyper, visit my Solidity on-boarding article aimed at developers to start writing smart contracts with the language: