Substrate: A Framework to Build Your Blockchain in the Fastest Way
For blockchain development, you need to build many things from scratch. Before you begin building the main business logic, creating the consensus mechanism, network layer, and nodes are necessary. Even if you think of cloning an existing blockchain application, you risk repeating its mistakes and copying the forks.
Once the development is complete, you may have other issues with scaling, updating, and uniforming. Your software version must be the same for all users and be up-to-date and free from software conflicts. Also, these should be immediately accessible to all users. These critical issues can often cause developers a lot of problems.
The Parity team has developed a new tool to facilitate quick and easy blockchain and dApp development: a framework called Substrate. This solution solves many problems by providing pre-defined functionality that allows developers to focus on business logic. So, Substrate could be the catalyst for a revolution in blockchain development.
What is Substrate?
Substrate is a software framework to build distributed and decentralized apps quickly. It is an open-source technology stack that allows you to create and customize blockchains with the greatest technical freedom. The Ethereum client and Polkadot community are part of the Parity blockchain software. Parity’s Substrate has been used to build Polkadot, which is a cross-chain platform. Substrate allows for the creation and migration of Polkadot parachains. Besides, Substrate can create blockchains immediately. The modular design allows developers to choose between complete control over code or maximum ease in configuration.
Built-in features of Substrate
Substrate has many built-in features that you can use in your application.
- A working consensus mechanism, validator voting system and block finalizing algorithm.
- Peer-to-peer connectivity layer, message sending, and data replication functionality.
- Full-node templates and the ability to run in a browser.
- Database abstraction allows almost any custom data to be used and stored on-chain.
- Easy and fast client updates via Wasm. No need for hard forks.
- Ability to migrate to Polkadot once it’s fully released.
- Many modules can be used to create different functionalities.
- An API to interact with your blockchain to develop dApps.
- Pre-defined interfaces and a universal UI for apps built on your blockchain.
- Development in Rust allows you to use all features of a programming language.
How does Substrate work?
Let’s take a look at the main components of Substrate and how they interact with each other.
Since we are dealing with a decentralized peer-to-peer system, the fundamental unit we are referring to is a node. This is where the blockchain runs. It provides the system’s essential components, including p2p networking and storage, the logic for block process and consensus, and the ability to interact with the blockchain from the outside.
There are three options available when we start a substrate project — Substrate node, Substrate FRAME and Substrate core.
Let’s take a closer look at each option.
Substrate Node
This is the top level that we can start from. It provides the most pre-built functionality and allows for the most technical freedom. It is runnable and has default implementations for components such as privilege access, account management, consensus, etc. You can also customize the chain’s genesis block (i.e., initial state) to start.
This allows us to run the node and get familiar with what Substrate provides out of the box. You can play with the state and interact with the running blockchain. You can also use the Substrate Playground to do the same. Here you can see both the frontend and backend templates so that you are familiar with them.
Substrate FRAME
FRAME ( Framework for Runtime Aggregation Modularized Entities ) allows you to build a substrate runtime from its existing libraries. It also gives you a lot of flexibility in determining the logic of your blockchain.
The Substrate has a pre-built node template. We can then add pallets (Substrate’s term for library modules) to personalize and expand the chain. At this level of abstraction, we can also customize the blockchain’s logic, data types, and state. The Substrate is where most basic customization projects can combine technical freedom with ease of development.
Substrate Core
Substrate Core means we can implement our runtime any way we like, provided it targets WebAssembly. It also must adhere to the basic laws of Substrate’s block creation. This allows us to use the runtime and execute it within the Substrate. This approach is not the easiest or the most difficult, but it offers the greatest technical freedom and allows for seamless integration with the substrate ecosystem.
Substrate advantages
Let’s highlight all the benefits substrate offers to blockchain developers.
- Substrate provides a complete set of tools and instruments that can be used to create a dApp-structured blockchain quickly. It provides all the essential components of a blockchain: consensus, networking and UI. Setting up the blockchain and customizing it by turning on or off specific modules is easy. Then, we can focus on implementing business logic.
- Substrate’s modular structure allows developers to create almost any type of monetary system. It supports several current token standards (ERC20 and ERC721, among others). We don’t have to use a transaction-based architecture. Instead, we can turn off the modules and create a decentralized application.
- The system of abstract types allows for wide-ranging blockchain customization. We have just two mandatory functions, execute_block and versions. The developer can decide what the rest of the design will look like.
- Rust is the basis of the development and it simplifies development. This allows you to use smart contract features that are not available.
- Wasm makes it easy to avoid complicated forks and supports a single software version for all users.
- Substrate blockchains can be easily migrated to the Polkadot parachain. So, the convenience and speed of substrate development can be enhanced with the effect of blockchain network.
Why building blockchains in Substrate is faster?
Substrate provides a ready-made environment for developers to run decentralized applications. You only need to implement a few hooks in your code. In general, you will need only two functions: execute_block and version. You can start with this base and implement your ideas.
Custom logic and features can be your focus. Transactions are optional, and you can turn them on and off as part of a separate module. Substrate, as you can see, provides a set of tools and an abstraction interface that make blockchain development easy, fast and flexible.
Final note
Substrate includes everything you need for building your blockchain. Substrate’s palettes make it easy to create whatever you need or implement your own logic. Hence, Substrate makes it faster, safer, and easier to build a blockchain.
