Constructing decentralized applications is
one of blockchain’s most significant
advantages. It does, however, come with a
set of very unique challenges. In this
article, Emil Wagner gives you some
guidelines on how to deal with those
challenges.
One of blockchain’s most significant advantages is its ability to
facilitate the construction of decentralized applications. They
have several key advantages, chief among them enhanced security
due to the fact that alterations to the network are only achieved
through the approval of many actors. These applications don’t rely
on a central authority, whether that’s a developer or a
corporation, instead, they allow important decisions about the
app’s development to be made by the community at large. In
addition, as open-source code repositories, decentralized
applications enable innovation from a broader spectrum of
developers.
Challenges for developers
However, from a development standpoint, constructing this new
type of applications is no small feat, and comes with a set of
unique challenges. A large part of the difficulty stems from the
fact that the applications team must create new UI and UX
languages alongside the applications. Specifically, through our work
on developing mobile decentralized applications, called æpps at
æternity, this initial challenge is significant, since we are
introducing certain functionalities for the first time ever. The
difficulty is increased by the fact that these features are being
implemented for mobile devices. Creating æpps requires
substantially more concerted effort and perseverance from
developers who must also comprehend the new type of
infrastructure that supports them.
The fact that it’s necessary to create corresponding UI/UX
specifically for æpps relates to another challenge in the space:
developer education. There has been a notable lack of development
in the decentralized apps sphere to date, and so there has been a
great influx of newcomers who are not aware of the specifics
related to decentralized applications. It’s essential that the UI/
UX is designed well-enough as to allow newcomers to use the apps.
It’s inevitably quite challenging to implement all of this on a
mobile device, particularly as different app stores have specific
requirements and can unlist an app as and when they choose.
Technical issues with using æpps
As with the development of any cutting-edge technology, there are
some technical issues associated with the use of æpps. Notably,
when using decentralized applications, there are “fees” involved
when carrying out tasks, such as sending a transaction, running a
smart contract, or using an oracle. This, in turn, has an impact
on UX and usually results in the app being slower to respond This
is, of course, confusing and frustrating for the user. At
æternity, we’re looking to solve this is by implementing state
channels and Bitcoin-NG. State channels let two participants
deposit funds in a direct channel to transfer funds between them
as long as both sign every transaction and run smart contracts in
the channel. This has several advantages, including increased
privacy and efficiency of transactions. Bitcoin-NG meanwhile is a
technology to improve the transaction throughput of the network.
These technologies will increase the network response speed and
improve UX.
SEE ALSO: Blockchain scalability for supply chains
Another significant issue is that program errors can be expensive
for the user and can quickly result in them choosing to no longer
use a decentralized app. Such instances must be avoided. To
address this, the æternity team has taken the strategic decision
to use functional programming languages. They are considered much
better when it comes to fault tolerance, the ability of the system
to continue running even in the event of a failure. The æternity
blockchain infrastructure is being developed on Erlang, one of the
most popular functional programming languages. 90% of all
internet traffic goes through Erlang controlled nodes.
Finally, the most popular smart contract language, Solidity, poses
many problems for building decentralized, mobile, user-friendly
apps. Solidity borrows syntax from another very popular language
but works quite differently. This could be confusing to developers
and result in unexpected behavior. It also encourages anti-patterns
like modifiers (jumping around in code), which creates functions
with side effects and makes it particularly grueling to create
user-friendly apps. Functional programming could be the solution.
æternity’s approach to smart
contracts
æternity has developed its own functional programming language,
Sophia, to be used for smart contracts. The paradigms of
functional programming — which treats computation as the
evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changeable data —
help reduce many of the aforementioned coding side effects.
SEE ALSO: Make sure your blockchain smart contracts are secure:
OpenZeppelin 2.0 soars high
Smart contracts written in the Sophia language are conceptually
based on reasonml syntax and the ocaml programming language, and
all of the contract state is managed in a single variable called
“state.” The functions can only change state by returning an
updated copy of the entire state. Sophia doesn’t borrow its
syntax from a popular language, which avoids errors based on false
assumptions assimilated from the original language.
For instance, a sample of Sophia code below counts how many
times the tick function has been called and can return this value
upon request:
contract Counter =
record state = { value : int }
function init(val) = { value = val }
function get() = state.value
function tick() = put(state{ value = state.
value + 1 })
This function also shows:
how to manage state
how state is updated
how state can be retrieved
all of the state is stored in a single variable called state
The path forward
Decentralized applications have significant potential to improve
security and efficiency of mobile applications, as well as enable
new features that users love. However, there are a number of major
challenges to be solved before they can achieve mainstream and
widespread adoption. They must reach the industry standard in
terms of UX/UI and eliminate costly technical errors. With the
introduction of functional programming languages like Sophia, we
at æternity hope to contribute a piece to the puzzle of making
æpps usable by a broader user base.
Be the first to share this article with your network!
one of blockchain’s most significant
advantages. It does, however, come with a
set of very unique challenges. In this
article, Emil Wagner gives you some
guidelines on how to deal with those
challenges.
One of blockchain’s most significant advantages is its ability to
facilitate the construction of decentralized applications. They
have several key advantages, chief among them enhanced security
due to the fact that alterations to the network are only achieved
through the approval of many actors. These applications don’t rely
on a central authority, whether that’s a developer or a
corporation, instead, they allow important decisions about the
app’s development to be made by the community at large. In
addition, as open-source code repositories, decentralized
applications enable innovation from a broader spectrum of
developers.
Challenges for developers
However, from a development standpoint, constructing this new
type of applications is no small feat, and comes with a set of
unique challenges. A large part of the difficulty stems from the
fact that the applications team must create new UI and UX
languages alongside the applications. Specifically, through our work
on developing mobile decentralized applications, called æpps at
æternity, this initial challenge is significant, since we are
introducing certain functionalities for the first time ever. The
difficulty is increased by the fact that these features are being
implemented for mobile devices. Creating æpps requires
substantially more concerted effort and perseverance from
developers who must also comprehend the new type of
infrastructure that supports them.
The fact that it’s necessary to create corresponding UI/UX
specifically for æpps relates to another challenge in the space:
developer education. There has been a notable lack of development
in the decentralized apps sphere to date, and so there has been a
great influx of newcomers who are not aware of the specifics
related to decentralized applications. It’s essential that the UI/
UX is designed well-enough as to allow newcomers to use the apps.
It’s inevitably quite challenging to implement all of this on a
mobile device, particularly as different app stores have specific
requirements and can unlist an app as and when they choose.
Technical issues with using æpps
As with the development of any cutting-edge technology, there are
some technical issues associated with the use of æpps. Notably,
when using decentralized applications, there are “fees” involved
when carrying out tasks, such as sending a transaction, running a
smart contract, or using an oracle. This, in turn, has an impact
on UX and usually results in the app being slower to respond This
is, of course, confusing and frustrating for the user. At
æternity, we’re looking to solve this is by implementing state
channels and Bitcoin-NG. State channels let two participants
deposit funds in a direct channel to transfer funds between them
as long as both sign every transaction and run smart contracts in
the channel. This has several advantages, including increased
privacy and efficiency of transactions. Bitcoin-NG meanwhile is a
technology to improve the transaction throughput of the network.
These technologies will increase the network response speed and
improve UX.
SEE ALSO: Blockchain scalability for supply chains
Another significant issue is that program errors can be expensive
for the user and can quickly result in them choosing to no longer
use a decentralized app. Such instances must be avoided. To
address this, the æternity team has taken the strategic decision
to use functional programming languages. They are considered much
better when it comes to fault tolerance, the ability of the system
to continue running even in the event of a failure. The æternity
blockchain infrastructure is being developed on Erlang, one of the
most popular functional programming languages. 90% of all
internet traffic goes through Erlang controlled nodes.
Finally, the most popular smart contract language, Solidity, poses
many problems for building decentralized, mobile, user-friendly
apps. Solidity borrows syntax from another very popular language
but works quite differently. This could be confusing to developers
and result in unexpected behavior. It also encourages anti-patterns
like modifiers (jumping around in code), which creates functions
with side effects and makes it particularly grueling to create
user-friendly apps. Functional programming could be the solution.
æternity’s approach to smart
contracts
æternity has developed its own functional programming language,
Sophia, to be used for smart contracts. The paradigms of
functional programming — which treats computation as the
evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changeable data —
help reduce many of the aforementioned coding side effects.
SEE ALSO: Make sure your blockchain smart contracts are secure:
OpenZeppelin 2.0 soars high
Smart contracts written in the Sophia language are conceptually
based on reasonml syntax and the ocaml programming language, and
all of the contract state is managed in a single variable called
“state.” The functions can only change state by returning an
updated copy of the entire state. Sophia doesn’t borrow its
syntax from a popular language, which avoids errors based on false
assumptions assimilated from the original language.
For instance, a sample of Sophia code below counts how many
times the tick function has been called and can return this value
upon request:
contract Counter =
record state = { value : int }
function init(val) = { value = val }
function get() = state.value
function tick() = put(state{ value = state.
value + 1 })
This function also shows:
how to manage state
how state is updated
how state can be retrieved
all of the state is stored in a single variable called state
The path forward
Decentralized applications have significant potential to improve
security and efficiency of mobile applications, as well as enable
new features that users love. However, there are a number of major
challenges to be solved before they can achieve mainstream and
widespread adoption. They must reach the industry standard in
terms of UX/UI and eliminate costly technical errors. With the
introduction of functional programming languages like Sophia, we
at æternity hope to contribute a piece to the puzzle of making
æpps usable by a broader user base.
Be the first to share this article with your network!
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