Best Programming Languages to Build Smart Contracts - Part 1: Solidity

Sunkanmi Fafowora — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:37 +0000

Smart contracts are a set of instructions or computer programs that run on the blockchain to automatically execute a digital agreement when certain conditions and payments are met. Today, we will examine Solidity, one of the programming languages that supports smart contract development on the blockchain.

Analyzing Solidity

We will measure each smart contract programming language by briefly discussing the following metrics and giving a rating for each of them on the language.

Security
Developer experience
Readability
Composability
Gas Efficiency
Compatibility With The Blockchain Platform and Cross-Chain Compatibility

The ratings are my personal opinions and should not be taken as fact, I think we should focus more on the analysis because ultimately it all depends on the developer’s choice for a smart contract programming language

Currently, Solidity is the most popular smart contract programming language and even the first smart contract programming language that runs on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and EVM-compatible blockchains. Here’s a quick breakdown of the metrics:

Security

Solidity generally is not known as the most secure smart contract programming language out there, inherently because developers need to be very careful and strictly follow security best practices to avoid security issues due to the language’s design choices. From integer overflows to reentrancy attacks and improper access controls, managing Solidity’s security can be challenging and this remains Solidity’s biggest issue when it comes to using it as a smart contract programming language, ultimately developers should take caution when using this language and always follow best practices.

Rating: 3/5

Developer Experience

Developer Experience refers to the developer’s interaction with various tools, environments, organizational structures, and processes in their workplace with an aim of creating a comfortable and enjoyable productive experience. It also has an additional definition that specifically includes our experience with SDKs, libraries and any technology we use for development including programming languages.

Solidity’s developer experience is generally considered good, due to the high demand of Solidity developers and the good pay that is attached to it. Its existence since 2014 has allowed for numerous tutorials, edits, blog posts, and guides to be created for a better understanding of the language and its compatibility with the EVM.

Rating: 4/5

Readability

If you’re familiar with the object-oriented paradigm and you’re coming from a C++ or JavaScript side of development, then transitioning to Solidity would be easy as it has a syntax similar to theirs. If not, you may have to learn a new paradigm and get used to it which is also not hard to do.

Here’s a sample of what a Solidity code looks like:

pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

import "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol";
import "@openzeppelin/contracts/access/Ownable.sol";

contract MyToken is ERC20, Ownable {
    int public myInt;
    uint public myUint;
    string public myString;

    constructor(uint256 initialSupply) ERC20("MyToken", "MTK") {
        _mint(msg.sender, initialSupply * (10 ** decimals()));
    }

    function mint(address to, uint256 amount) public onlyOwner {
        _mint(to, amount);
    }
}

I know some syntax may seem confusing right now, but give yourself time to get used to the new style even though it’s just a bit strict like assigning the specific data types for strings and integers. Without this strictness, however, there wouldn’t be consistency in your code.

Rating: 5/5

Composability

Composability in blockchain refers to a blockchain’s ability to interact with any smart contract, different blockchain protocols, and decentralized applications (dApps) to create new applications. Solidity has this great feature.

Rating: 5/5

Gas Efficiency

Solidity’s gas efficiency is not largely dependent on the smart contract programming language itself but of the developer’s knowledge and implementation of its best practices to achieve good gas efficiency. The aim of gas in Ethereum is to reward fuel-efficient development. For example, two smart contracts might perform the same task, but it is the one with the lower computational effort that is rewarded with lower gas fees.

Gas is the computational cost or effort required to run a smart contract on a blockchain. It is also a fee paid to the validators on the blockchain to execute a particular transaction or smart contract. The lesser the fee, the higher the chances your transaction is accepted and added to the blockchain

Ultimately, this depends on the developer and not the programming language so no rating here!

Compatibility With The Blockchain Platform and Cross-Chain Compatibility

Super compatible with its blockchain platform (Ethereum). This is A-okay here.

To help us understand better, cross-chain compatibility with other blockchain platforms doesn’t usually stem from the programming language itself but from some protocols that facilitate this, however, Solidity is EVM-compatible with other blockchains in the EVM network.

Solidity can also be used to build cross-chain functionality by utilizing cross-chain protocols like Chainlink CCIP, and Wormhole.

In essence, you can have some form of interoperability, communication and compatibility with the blockchain platform and others.

Rating: 5/5

Where to learn Solidity?

Here are two great platforms for learning solidity online:

1. Alchemy University

Alchemy University is what I’m currently using to learn Solidity and it is awesome! The course videos and its interactive code platform to test out what you learn are amazing. Totally would recommend this!

CryptoZombie

With over 400,000+ students and 1 million+ course completions, CryptoZombies takes you through an interactive session on not just Solidity, but a whole bouquet of courses on blockchain including NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), Chainlink, Ethereum, and more.

Conclusion

Solidity is a great programming language for building smart contracts, it excels in various aspects such as developer experience, composability, and more. It does lack a bit in the security aspect which the other programming languages like Rust have stated to be better at. We will be looking into more smart contract programming languages like Move, Vyper, etc in the future so I hope to see you in the next article!

Understanding L0, L1, L2, and L3 Blockchains

Sunkanmi Fafowora — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 20:22:04 +0000

Blockchain refers to a decentralized digital ledger that records digital transactions and tracks various assets across a large network of computers.

Blockchain technology has several layers, from L0 (layer 0) to L1 (layer 1), L2 (layer 2), and L3 (layer 3) blockchain. These layers are responsible for making blockchain technology’s operations work, with each layer building on top of the previous one and leveraging the architecture of the previous one to produce a better one.

In this article, we will specifically dive into the layers of blockchain available and understand what they are about.

Understanding Different Blockchain Layers

There are 4 different layers of blockchain which make sure the blockchain technology functions properly. These layers usually build on top of one another’s infrastructure and architecture to make up for faster and better technology. These are:

L0 (Layer 0) Blockchain

The foundational layer facilitates communication and interaction between different blockchains. This is done through a protocol called the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), which operates in this layer. This layer acts as the foundational base upon which all the other layers build and provides a solid architecture for other blockchain networks. Examples of blockchains here include Avalanche, Cosmos, and Polkadot. These blockchains also often address issues such as developer flexibility and scalability.

L1 (Layer 1) Blockchain

Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum exist in this layer. The layer 1 blockchain provides the fundamental architecture and infrastructure for the entire blockchain system. Building upon layer 0, they act as the main handlers for security through mechanisms like consensus and proof of work (PoW), process transactions, and support the deployment of smart contracts and applications.

L2 (Layer 2) Blockchain

Layer 2 adds on top of the layer 1 blockchain layer to make transactions cheaper, and faster by storing the data off-chain, reducing the number of nodes needed for transaction validation, and more. There’s nothing much to it. That’s what you need to know. Examples of layer-2 blockchains include Optimism, Lightning Network, Arbitrum etc

L3 (Layer 3) Blockchain

Layer 3 adds on top of layer 2 and layer 1 blockchain to give us application-specific functionalities or decentralized applications (DApps). These applications focus on interoperability between different blockchains to allow communication between them in a single application. This improves blockchain scalability and complexity making it more accessible to the layman. Examples include Polkadot, Cosmos (IBC Protocol), Superchain, Polygon etc.

Conclusion

Blockchain is the future of online transactions. With its innovative technology and even integration with AI, it is set to explode in the coming years. Heck, even Mastercard believes banks and financial services will integrate blockchain into their everyday transactions, setting a new global standard for payment processing and digital business. So keep an eye out for this.

The next set of articles will focus on web3 and blockchain-specific technologies where I would dive deep into their specifics, making it understandable and simpler to understand. Thank you for reading and I do hope to see you in the next article!

DEV Community: Sunkanmi Fafowora

Best Programming Languages to Build Smart Contracts - Part 1: Solidity

Analyzing Solidity

Security

Developer Experience

Readability

Composability

Gas Efficiency

Compatibility With The Blockchain Platform and Cross-Chain Compatibility

Where to learn Solidity?

1. Alchemy University

CryptoZombie

Conclusion

Understanding L0, L1, L2, and L3 Blockchains

Understanding Different Blockchain Layers

L0 (Layer 0) Blockchain

L1 (Layer 1) Blockchain

L2 (Layer 2) Blockchain

L3 (Layer 3) Blockchain

Conclusion

Next Articles