Getting Started with Universal Blockchain Applications using Nervos Network
With the promise that blockchain technology has shown over the last decade, for its ability to disrupt the status quo, it should come as no surprise that spending on the development of blockchain solutions is set to reach an estimated $11.7 billion by 2022.
Of course, this shift towards transacting the blockchain way has taken time to materialize but it’s not just big business and the financial industry that are open to harnessing the benefits of this technology.
For that matter, even centralized entities such as central banks and governments are changing their outlook on blockchain technology too.
As you can tell, adopting this approach in every walk of life has gone beyond being a mere fad to embracing a mindset that considers decentralization as its most defining attribute. Being applicable to a plethora of industries and their consumers, blockchain technology is here to stay.
So, with such explosive growth on the horizon, what implications do these developments have for blockchain development as a potential career path?
In fact, blockchain developers, both at home and abroad, can expect to take home an excellent paycheck for their efforts.
The numbers look good. For real. Very good, in fact.
Speaking of which, it’s fair to ask: what comprises blockchain development?
Blockchain Development Essentials
In order to understand what it entails to be a blockchain developer, one must understand blockchain technology from the ground up.
Think of said blockchain as an assembly of blocks that each contains transactions, data and files. From the user’s standpoint, as soon as a transaction is executed, a block is created and becomes part of an immutable chain of blocks that are linked through the creation and subsequent storing hashes.
Given that these blocks are added to a public ledger chronologically after consensus, they accurately record transactions for one and all to refer to at any given point in time. Conventionally, several popular blockchain platforms offer their users the feature to make a wide variety of transactions that can be stored on the blockchain.
This brings us to smart contracts: when several parties arrive at an agreement that indicates some form of exchange, this can also be saved on the blockchain as a transaction. Yet apart from merely recording the transaction, a block of code can automatically execute the contract based on the instructions set by developers. These instructions are generally executed when the terms of the agreement between two parties are met. Be it insurance premiums, breach contracts, credit enforcement or even crowdfunding agreements, smart contracts can play a key role in ensuring that these types of transactions are carried out without bias or delay.
So, how does one build these smart contracts, you might ask?
With Solidity leading the charge as a strongly-typed scripting language in blockchain development, popular imperative programming languages such as Java, Python, C#, C++, Rust and Go are part of a list of usual suspects whose implementations work just as well. As for using languages that are functional in nature, Erlang and Haskell have been used in blockchain development, given that immutability and concurrency are prominent advantages that these languages offer.
Last but not the least, blockchain development definitely involves building dApps that are nothing but a set of smart contracts working in conjunction beneath the user interface of an application. Otherwise known as decentralized apps, they are not very different from the usual apps that you can find on Apple’s App Store or even Google Play as they can offer rich functionality that their centralized counterparts already do.
Of course, one major difference is that the backend code and the database associated with each dApp is distributed across the blockchain network and offer users some benefits that cannot be replicated by conventional apps. Without going into much detail, due to this distributed nature of a dApp, it’s uncommon for these apps to experience downtime on the whole or enforce censorship on individuals. While the ethics of the latter benefit might seem questionable, one thing is for sure: blockchain technology, regardless of where its implementations operate, ensures that they live up to the paradigm of decentralized computing very seriously.
With that said, where does the Nervos ecosystem fit in the general scheme of things? Can this established blockchain platform serve as a springboard towards a fulfilling career in blockchain development? Or can it give you a competitive edge if you’ve been operating in the blockchain space for a few years?
If anything, the platform’s features should help us arrive at answers that could surprise even the most skeptical of us.
Why Use Nervos for Blockchain Development?
If one has to sum up the Nervos blockchain ecosystem, it is a multi-layered smart contract platform that is based on the proof of work mechanism.
Not only is the platform open-source and public in nature but it also consists of numerous protocols that work towards building a universal internet-like public network.
Building smart contracts on the Nervos platform requires programming expertise in Javascript (Typescript), Rust and C. The Capsule, Lumos and PW-Core frameworks made available by the Nervos platform can get you started with the smart contract and dApp development.
Now, let’s look at a few benefits that are offered by the Nervos ecosystem:
First, you can access any asset or blockchain, while accessing the entire space. In addition, you can access a variety of dApps — otherwise known as Universal Apps — from your selected solution. Clearly, these features streamline user access and facilitate ease of use, with a focus on making the entire user experience convenient.
For developers, you can build dApps using the Nervos platform or even port an existing dApp too. Not only will you reach a wider audience through the Nervos blockchain ecosystem but enjoy the full flexibility as a developer that these two features offer.
Now, if you are an experienced Blockchain developer, concerns related to application scaling and security might be on your minds. Nervos offers Layer 2 scaling solutions while also delivering on security and decentralization with a network that includes features such as the optimized Nakamoto consensus as well as the ASIC-backed Proof-of-Work mechanism. It must also be pointed out that Layer 1 was specifically designed to build Layer 2 solutions so as to provide the benefits of flexibility and scalability from the get-go.
Finally, Nervos, with a desire to address sustainability issues associated with a cryptocurrency-based economy, has included a built-in store of value mechanism that can prove to be far more dependable as this feature mitigates or even avoids high volatility and speculation.
In Closing
As impressive as these benefits might seem, it’s well worth noting that there lies many opportunities for further improvement, as a blockchain network.
Since the lion’s share of recommendations and feedback come from our users and developers, we would like to continue this best practice of sharing your experience when it comes to the use of the Nervos platform.
That said, if you are an aspiring or experienced blockchain developer and wish to get started in such a capacity with the Nervos blockchain platform, feel free to sign up for the Meetup scheduled for November 12, 2021, here.
