Tezos Dev Guide | All you need to know
What's the difference that is the main point when you look around a vast variety of Blockchain Platforms. You have a lot of options for developing Decentralized applications aka dApps. But you need to choose the correct one tallying with the specifications you want to have in your dApp specifically transaction throughput, the stability of the network and trusted Quorum.
This article will give you an intuition on why and when to use Tezos as your Dapp development network. An overview of the technology stack that will make you familiar with this blockchain protocol.
Structured as :
Difference / Uniqueness / Difference From Ethereum / Common Jargons / Resources for further reading & Forums to reach out
How it is different?
Since this is a developer guide, most of the audience are developers and with the boom of Blockchain technology, it's obvious that devs know about the big players in the game like Ethereum and Bitcoin, so comparison based explanation will be a better approach to know the uniqueness of Tezos and why it is growing exponentially in this blockchain ecosystem.
Some uniqueness with the platform :
- Self-Amendment and Upgradability
- Liquid Proof-of-Stake
- Smart Contract Security and Formal Verification
These are the few things that make tezos different from other dApp development networks. But there are other tradeoffs that are to be considered when you select a network.
I will walk through all the unique features one by one and let's see how we can make a difference!
Self-Amendment and Upgradability
Tezos can upgrade itself through an in-protocol amendment process without the need for a hard fork. This is in order to accelerate innovation, reduce the likelihood of contentious splits, and coordinate stakeholders within one network over a long period of time.
The amendment process can be broken into four discrete periods: the Proposal Period, the Exploration or “Testing” Vote Period, the Testing Period, and the Promotion Vote Period. Each of these four periods lasts eight baking cycles (i.e. 32,768 blocks or roughly 22 days, 21 hours), comprising almost exactly three months from proposal to activation.
The Tezos amendment process begins with the Proposal Period, during which bakers can submit proposals on-chain via the proposal operation, which takes “source”, “period” and “proposals hash” as parameters. The “source” is the baker who submits the proposal operation, the “period” specifies the specific proposal period in which the proposal was submitted, and the “proposals hash” is the hash of the tarball of concatenated .ml/.mli source files. Bakers may submit up to 20 proposals in each Proposal Period. When submitting a proposal, the baker is also submitting a vote for that proposal, equivalent to the number of rolls in its staking balance at the start of the period.
When the proposal period ends the network counts the proposal votes and the most voted proposal goes for the Exploration Vote Period.
In the Exploration Vote Period, bakers may vote on the top-ranked proposal from the previous Proposal Period.
As in the Proposal Period, a baker’s vote is based on the number of rolls in its staking balance at the beginning of the Exploration Vote Period. Each baker may send a ballot operation only once during the voting period.
At the end of eight cycles, the network counts the votes. If voting participation meets the quorum (explained below) and an 80% supermajority of non-abstaining bakers approves, the proposal proceeds to the Testing Period.
If a proposal is approved by a supermajority in the Exploration Vote Period, the Testing Period (8 cycles) begins with a testnet fork that runs parallel to the main Tezos chain for 48 hours before terminating. This 48-hour constant has been set conservatively in order to reduce the risk of the network perceiving the testnet fork as the main chain.
The purpose of the Testing period is to check if it is running in a predicted manner and if it is worth an upgrade. In this phase, the testnet behavior is closely observed and allows the stakeholders to evaluate the network.
Liquid Proof-of-Stake
Consensus Algorithms one of the responsible factors which bring the network latency as well as a singularity in the distributed network. Liquid PoS aims to maintain a dynamic validator set, facilitating token holder coordination and accountable governance.
Tezos holds decentralization, coordination, and security as core priorities over scaling immediately and throughput (currently ~40 tps).
Faster block validation and finality without wastage of a large amount of computing power helps to reach a higher transaction throughput. This is one of the key features facilitating the dApp development for better UX.
Smart Contract Security and Formal Verification
Tezos and its smart contract language Michelson is made keeping security in mind. Made in a way that is less error-prone and has the capability to do immensely powerful operations and execute in Michelson.
Formal verification allows developers to mathematically prove that code performs correctly, according to its formal specification or certain properties. This is well-suited to financial smart contracts “ Knock Knock — A use case ” representing significant real-world value (e.g. tokenized assets, loans, etc.), which require guarantees that funds will not be lost or frozen due to bugs in the code.
This gives support to the financial institutions to adopt blockchain technologies and use smart-contracts for their automatization that too with the proof of safety.
We are done with what's different! Let us have a look at some of the features of Tezos which makes it Unique.
The State Machine: Michelson!
Michelson is a low-level, stack-based, Turing complete programming language that boosts security. It was designed to facilitate formal verification, allowing users to prove the properties of their contracts. One of the key features of Michelson is its code is not compiled to anything, it is directly interpreted by the Tezos Virtual Machine!
Using a higher-level bytecode also simplifies the process of proving properties about the compiled output. Programs written in Michelson can be reasonably analyzed by SMT ( Satisfiability Modulo Theories ) solvers and formalized in Coq ( will be explained ) without the need for more complicated techniques like separation logic.
One main advantage of Tezos is that the system is amendable. We want to start with a small core language in which we are confident and add features as good use cases are created for them.
As a whole, it provides an abstract platform for business logic, to provide a readable bytecode, and to be introspectable.
Let’s Bake!
The recipe for baking, not Cakes
You may wonder, why I am pushing cooking instructions in between an article. Well, it's important!
Baking in Tezos is how blocks are produced and validated on the Tezos blockchain.
No, it's not called mining here we Bake blocks to add it in the Blockchain. To bake blocks, you need to take part in the Tezos Proof-of-stake system, which requires a minimum of 8,000 XTZ. The more XTZ you own, the higher your chances are at baking blocks and earning baking rewards.
You can do Solo-Baking and earn the rewards directly but you need technical knowledge and a proper infrastructure running 24/7 in addition to 8000 XTZ that's a whole lot amount which will be locked while staking.
An Alternative!
If someone does not have 8,000 XTZ or does not want to set up computing infrastructure to bake blocks, they may delegate their coins to a baker (aka “delegate”). Delegating lets coin holders (i.e. “delegators”) “lend” their coins to a baker (i.e. a “delegate”), giving the baker a higher probability of being selected to bake and endorse blocks. In practice, bakers usually share the additional revenue generated from the delegated tokens with the coin holder.
This is an awesome resource where you can know about the life cycle of the Baking process: https://medium.com/tqtezos/lifecycle-of-an-operation-in-tezos-248c51038ec2
The difference from ethereum!
This part is the hot pick of the whole article where you came to know what are the difference and Why Tezos ?
- In ethereum whenever you feel the need to upgrade the protocol hard-fork is needed and you can’t propose for the same. It's a long process and can be only done by a set of authorities. Yes, tezos comes with self-amendment backed by a voting process. Update Proposal can be raised by any network participant.
- Ethereum Virtual Machine aka EVM runs bytecode which is not introspectable whereas Tezos Virtual Machine runs Michelson’s readable bytecode. It improves the debugging process.
- Ethereum currently works on PoW consensus algorithm which has less transaction throughput and Tezos has LPoS as their consensus algorithm which has a larger gain of transaction throughput.
- Tezos is designed for facilitating DeFi, writing more secure smart-contracts and Formal Verification methods which removes the risk of token burning and loss hence it can be used for designing financial contracts in the blockchain.
- In Tezos you can code in your native programming language like python using SmartPy and JavaScript using Fi whereas in Ethereum you have to write code in their language like Solidity, Vyper & LLL. All the language specified are Turing complete and all Turing complete languages can be transpiled into one another
Something more you need to know: jargons used in this Blocked universe of tezos!
Implicit and Originated Accounts
In regards to baking, implicit accounts are the accounts that can participate in the baking process. An implicit account can bake with its own coins as well as the coins delegated by other people.
Originated accounts cannot bake directly, but can delegate their coins to an implicit account. Originated accounts use their manager key to specify a delegate key, allowing them to select a delegate to represent their stake in consensus.
Zero-Knowledge proof
Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) allow data to be verified without revealing that data. They, therefore, have the potential to revolutionize the way data is collected, used and transacted with.
Each transaction has a ‘verifier’ and a ‘prover’. In a transaction using ZKPs, the prover attempts to prove something to the verifier without telling the verifier anything else about that thing.
Tezos deals with the security and anonymity with an upgrade of applying ZKP.
GADT
GADT stands for Generalized Algebraic Data Types. GADTs allow OCaml developers to describe rich relations between data constructors and the types they inhabit. Currently, the Michelson language uses GADT (Generalized Algebraic Data Types) for formal verification of types.
CoQ: Formal Proof Assistance
Coq is a formal proof management system. It provides a formal language to write mathematical definitions, executable algorithms and theorems together with an environment for semi-interactive development of machine-checked proofs.
Through a vernacular language of commands, Coq allows one to:
- define functions or predicates that can be evaluated efficiently
- state mathematical theorems and software specifications
- interactively develop formal proofs of these theorems
This repository is a formalization of Michelson using the Coq interactive theorem prover: https://framagit.org/rafoo/michelson-coq.
Resources!
Tezos Wikipedia: learn.tqtezos.com
To find answers to your most relatable questions: tezos.stackexchange.com/
New to Tezos and want to know more about how to activate, store, bake, etc. Please visit: tezos.com/get-started/
Official tezos website: https://tezos.com/
Here are the links for Tezos Block Explorers:
https://teztracker.everstake.one/mainnet
https://mininax.cryptonomic.tech/mainnet
To know more about Tezos wallets that go through Security audit by tezos foundation
Follow the below links :
https://kukai.app/
For Mobile wallets :
Multi-Currency Wallets :
https://atomicwallet.io/tezos-wallet
Hardware Wallets :
Tezos Notifier Bot: The first Tezos Blockchain bot, it helps in tracking addresses, voting, and notifications about rewards and cycle performance of delegates, etc.
To know more, please visit: https://t.me/TezosNotifierBot
Tezos help resources
Visit: https://www.tezos.help/
To know more and be on a top-notch with real-time baker statistics
Please visit: https://mytezosbaker.com/
If confused/worried about whether delegate pays you in full and on time
Please visit: https://baking-bad.org/
If interested in knowing about how a tezos public bakes, we do have a website which includes a reliability rating.
Here’s the link: https://www.tezos-nodes.com/
If interested in knowing upcoming tezos events and announcements.
Join: https://t.me/TezosAnnouncements
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It this rapid dev environment of Tezos multiple new upgrades are coming day by day, If any concept got shot by depreciation feel free to reach me out in Twitter @MajumderDibyo and I will update the same
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