Essential Practical Handbook for Developers: A Comprehensive Overview of the Best Tools for Building Blockchain Applications

Author: Emmanuel Awosika

Original Title: 《20+ Blockchain Development Tools》

Compiled by: ChinaDeFi

Reports suggest that blockchain is now one of the fastest-growing fields. With the surge in blockchain projects (DeFi, NFT, DAO), the demand for blockchain developers is also skyrocketing.

If you have already built on blockchain or plan to build, here is an introduction to some of the best tools for creating blockchain applications.

Programming Languages

To develop blockchain applications, one must learn a programming language. These languages allow us to create smart contract code to serve as the backend of applications.

Solidity

Currently, Solidity is the most popular programming language in blockchain development. It is a high-level, object-oriented language that borrows elements from other languages (especially C++).

Many developers prefer to learn Solidity because Ethereum, which is considered the de facto blockchain, uses Solidity to write smart contracts. Additionally, Solidity is Turing complete, allowing us to create feature-rich complex applications.

Learning Solidity is a great starting point for embarking on a journey as a blockchain developer. The popularity of Solidity means we have access to useful tutorials, guides, and documentation designed for beginners.

Solidity can also run on other blockchains as long as they are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This means we can deploy projects on EVM-compatible blockchains like Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, Matic Network, and more.

Vyper

Solidity is not the only language for creating smart contracts. A popular alternative is Vyper—a Python-based language that is EVM-compatible.

While Vyper does not have the same capabilities and popularity as Solidity, it is an ideal choice for developers familiar with Python. Moreover, Vyper's simple architecture reduces software errors and simplifies smart contract audits.

Rust

Rust is a newer programming language that is gaining popularity in the blockchain development community. It is a low-level language used for writing smart contracts, praised for its storage efficiency, simplicity, and reliability.

The downside is that Rust is not EVM-compatible, so we cannot deploy projects on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains. However, newer chains like Solana, Terra, NEAR, Polkadot, and Elrond can use Rust, making learning this language a worthwhile investment.

Frameworks

Building decentralized applications (dApps) from scratch can be a daunting task, especially if we have to handle every tiny detail ourselves. Fortunately, we can benefit from "plug-and-play" infrastructure software frameworks to easily create dApps.

Frameworks come with resources (libraries and tools) for creating, testing, and deploying code. There is no need to write a dApp from scratch, as we can use ready-made packages and then add additional features. Furthermore, most frameworks are developed and optimized by experienced engineers, making them powerful, efficient, and versatile.

Truffle

The first framework on our list for blockchain development is Truffle. Truffle is a JavaScript-based framework for developing, testing, and deploying smart contracts. It remains one of the most commonly used frameworks in the blockchain industry.

Truffle provides the resources needed to create fully functional dApps, offering everything from built-in smart contract creation tools to testing blockchain environments. It also has ready-made libraries that make building the frontend of Ethereum dApps easier.

Hardhat

Hardhat is another framework highly recommended for smart contract developers. Like Truffle, Hardhat is a JavaScript-based framework for creating, testing, deploying, and debugging applications on Ethereum.

Hardhat is a comprehensive tool platform that abstracts most of the underlying common functionalities related to blockchain software development. This allows us to focus on more important tasks, such as building the core infrastructure for our dApps.

Embark

Embark is a full-stack development framework that allows us to build both the frontend and backend of dApps simultaneously. Although it is last on the list, Embark is just as good as the other frameworks mentioned in this section.

Embark provides resources for dApp data storage, real-time code testing, and smart contract deployment. Additionally, we can access important plugins like Etherscan, Solc, Solium, and more.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) assist application development by combining core development tools into a graphical user interface (GUI). Most IDEs feature code compilation, editing, syntax highlighting, build automation, and debugging.

Remix IDE

Remix is considered the industry standard for IDEs by many blockchain developers. With Remix IDE, we can compile, test, and debug smart contracts—all through an intuitive interface.

Remix IDE is written in JavaScript, and we can use it in any browser, or we can run it locally on our own computers (as a desktop application). It provides a comprehensive set of libraries, plugins, and other features to drive smart contract development.

EthFiddle

EthFiddle is a browser-based IDE for writing and debugging Solidity code. If we are collaborating with others on a project, EthFiddle, developed by Loom Network, is a great tool that allows us to easily edit, find code snippets, and share code snippets with others for feedback.

EthFiddle is not as feature-rich as Remix IDE, but its ability to share code in presentations is very useful. It offers well-designed testing and prototyping features, making it a good tool for all blockchain developers.

Ethcode

We also recommend Ethcode, a Visual Studio Code plugin for developing Ethereum smart contracts. Ethcode provides a beginner-friendly development environment for writing, debugging, and unit testing contract code.

The code is open-source, and new developers can seek support when needed. Ethcode is compatible with Vyper and Solidity and can deploy smart contracts to the Ethereum mainnet and Goerli testnet, among others.

APIs and SDKs

In addition to frameworks and IDEs, APIs and SDKs are also among the most important tools for Web3 developers. They help blockchain engineers solve specific problems encountered during development and assist in the creation of dApps.

To simplify interactions between different software, an API (Application Programming Interface) is designed. By using APIs to request data to enhance dApps, we can build on existing functionalities.

SDK stands for "Software Development Kit," which is a collection of software products for building applications on specific platforms. Blockchain development SDKs reduce the complexity of building platform-specific dApps.

Alchemy NFT API

With the surge in NFT values, many developers are turning their attention to this industry. If you plan to create an NFT application, Alchemy's NFT API is a perfect tool.

The Alchemy NFT API allows developers to display metadata for different NFTs in a user-friendly interface. It works across multiple chains (Ethereum, Polygon, Flow, etc.), giving buyers greater flexibility in choosing NFTs.

The NFT API abstracts most of the technical tasks involved in NFT interactions. By integrating the NFT API into our platform, buyers do not need to read smart contracts before verifying and purchasing NFTs.

Thirdweb SDK

The Thirdweb SDK is very useful for building Web3 applications or integrating Web3 features into existing applications. For example, we can add a "connect wallet" feature to our application without writing any code.

Thirdweb can be used for:

• Creating NFT marketplaces
• Launching NFTs without writing code
• Creating tokens for governance, community membership, and other purposes
• Programming royalty-sharing NFTs

Thirdweb currently supports Fantom, Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon, with promises to support more chains in the future. While smart contracts can be used for free, Thirdweb makes money by charging 5% of future royalties from token contracts.

Moralis API and SDK

Moralis is a Web3 development platform that provides APIs and SDKs to accelerate blockchain development cycles. The Moralis SDK reduces the complexity of building fully functional dApps by providing ready-made functionalities such as:

• User authentication
• Sending and retrieving transactions
• Listening for smart contract events
• Interacting with smart contracts

Moralis's cross-chain Web3 API can also aggregate comprehensive information about account balances, tokens, on-chain transactions, and more. It supports the most popular chains, including Avalanche, Polygon, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain.

Testing Blockchain Networks

By default, most smart contracts are immutable, meaning that once the code is deployed to the blockchain, no modifications can be made. Therefore, testing on the Ethereum mainnet is discouraged, as we cannot make changes after deployment.

To address this issue, Ethereum developers can use test blockchain networks (testnets) to test dApps. Test networks allow us to see how smart contracts work on the blockchain, enabling us to find defects before launching them.

Local Blockchain (Ganache)

Ganache is a local blockchain for Ethereum development that can be used as a command-line tool or desktop application. Blockchain developers can use Ganache to deploy smart contracts and perform tests.

The Ganache tool has a user-friendly interface that provides access to debugging information and blockchain data (accounts, blocks, transactions). We can also configure other elements, such as block time, to meet our development needs.

Public Test Networks (Ropsten / Rinkeby)

We can use public testnets like Ropsten, Goerli, or Rinkeby instead of Ganache. The main difference is that Ganache can be used offline and does not require online access.

Some developers prefer public testnets because they simulate Ethereum's behavior and may be more suitable for testing hypotheses. For example, Ropsten uses a proof-of-work consensus similar to the Ethereum mainnet.

While testnets are free to use, we need to test Ether (ETH) in our browser wallet to complete transactions.

Oracles

While smart contracts have exciting applications, their functionality is limited because they can only access information stored on-chain. This poses a problem for developers building smart contracts that rely on external information to execute functions.

This is where oracles come into play.

Blockchain oracles collect real-world information from various sources and relay it to smart contracts running on the blockchain. This information can be displayed in various forms: real-time prices, weather information, sports results, and more.

Choosing decentralized oracles is important because they are harder to manipulate by malicious actors and primarily provide reliable information. Many popular dApps, such as Kyber, Synthetix, and Compound, use decentralized oracles to execute smart contracts.

Chainlink

Currently, Chainlink is the market-leading decentralized oracle solution. Launched in 2017, Chainlink provides "reliable and tamper-proof" data for smart contracts across multiple blockchains.

With Chainlink, we can connect smart contracts to various real-world data sources. For example, we can create a dApp that rewards users for predicting the outcomes of real-world events.

Other decentralized oracle solutions include Band Protocol, Witnet, and Universal Market Access (UMA). These applications incentivize selected oracles to provide accurate information, maintaining the integrity of off-chain data.

Blockchain Node Providers

When building dApps, we will need to interact with the blockchain—whether reading on-chain data or writing data to the blockchain. For this, we need to connect to blockchain nodes; blockchain nodes store the entire history of the blockchain and can send/query blockchain data.

The problem is that maintaining a full Ethereum node is expensive, time-consuming, and complex. Therefore, blockchain developers are advised to use blockchain node providers (node-as-a-service). Node providers handle the blockchain infrastructure for clients, allowing us to focus on building and scaling dApps.

Alchemy Supernode

If we are looking for a suitable blockchain node provider, Alchemy Supernode is worth trying. Supernode offers a comprehensive set of APIs for interacting with the blockchain and obtaining critical blockchain data.

With this tool, connecting to the blockchain network layer is as simple as signing up and receiving an API key. The service is not only applicable to Ethereum but also to other projects—providing ample flexibility in using blockchains.

Alchemy's "node-as-a-service" tool also has the following advantages:

• Free registration
• Scalable infrastructure
• Enhanced APIs
• Reliable

Supernode is designed to adapt to our needs and provide seamless scalability. This way, we won't lose sleep over node infrastructure, and our users can enjoy a better experience.

If we want to learn about other available projects, we can also check out other node providers, including QuickNode, Infura, GetBlock, BlockDaemon, and Chainstack.

Analytics

When building dApps, many Web3 developers quickly find that tracking on-chain activity is challenging. In most cases, we need to do some heavy lifting before obtaining key application information (such as real-time usage data, user adoption rates, and token metrics).

However, if we want to improve our dApp and expand our user base, analyzing these data points is crucial. For this, we need to use tools like Alchemy Monitor, which can make it easier to analyze our Web3 applications.

Alchemy Monitor

Alchemy Monitor is a powerful tool specifically designed for monitoring dApp infrastructure and obtaining user activity. Alchemy Monitor provides real-time updates on dApp health and can display API calls, error rates, and response times.

The Alchemy Monitor dashboard can also track dApp usage and provide useful insights into user behavior. It also features a nice automated alert system that can flag issues before our dApp experiences significant failures.

Alchemy Notify

Developers are not the only ones who need real-time information about dApp activity; users also need to know what is happening on the dApp. For example, users may want to know if a transaction executed in the dApp was successful.

This is why using Alchemy Notify's push notification service is a great idea. Adding push notifications to our dApp could be the difference between an excellent and a poor user experience. Notify provides the following information to application users:

• Transaction notifications;
• Resolution activity alerts;
• Gas price alerts, and more.

Security Tools

If there is one takeaway from this year, it is that security should be the top priority for any blockchain project. Strengthening the security of smart contracts is more worthwhile to consider than adding fancy features to our new dApp. Here are some of the biggest vulnerabilities this year:

• Axie Infinity (hacked for $615 million)
• Inverse Finance (hacked for $15 million)
• Elephant Money (hacked for $22.5 million)

There are more hacks, but these should give us a basic idea that smart contract security is a serious matter. Without proper security measures, this could damage our reputation and hinder user adoption.

Octopus

First on our list of tools to strengthen smart contract security is Octopus, a solution for detailed analysis of smart contract code. Octopus provides symbolic execution, call flow analysis, and control flow analysis—all of which can help us discover contract errors and fix them before it's too late.

Mythril

Next is Mythril, a smart contract security tool supported by ConsenSys. Mythril is used to analyze Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode and identifies vulnerabilities in Ethereum software using taint analysis, symbolic execution, and taint resolution.

Securify

Finally, we have Securify—a smart contract scanner supported by the Ethereum Foundation. Securify can detect up to 37 different software vulnerabilities and provides context-specific analysis for Solidity-based smart contracts.

Wallets

If we are going to create a dApp, we need a wallet to store funds, even if it is just test Ether (ETH). For this, we can set up a cryptocurrency wallet in our browser in just a few minutes.

MetaMask

We recommend using MetaMask because, in addition to holding ETH, it offers many features. As a browser extension, MetaMask injects the Web3js API into websites, allowing users to interact with dApps directly in their browsers. MetaMask can also perform other functions, such as key management, reading blockchain data, and more.

Conclusion

Blockchain development can be an exciting process, but only if we have the right tools from the start. Creating a robust development stack can make it easier to build applications and improve the quality of the output.