The technological decentralized Web 3.0 Internet, the development of which we are witnessing today, consists of numerous components and services. Their development, interaction, economics and management are issues that web developers have to deal with on a daily basis.
What tasks are addressed by crypto services?
To answer this question, it is necessary to refer to the very definition of Web 3.0 - a set of fully decentralized services that have their own tasks and characteristics, and operate on the Internet.
That is, the web developer should provide a comprehensive approach to the creation of:
- service infrastructure;
- legal support and enforcement of property rights in the digital economy;
- project tokenomics;
- multimodality and compatibility with other participants
What cryptocurrency services should a web developer use in 2022 to create an in-demand product?
Layer-one blockchains and layer-two networks
The foundation of the vast majority of today's digital projects is blockchain. Blockchain is a database built on the logical sequential recording in blocks of every transaction in the network without the possibility of adjustment or deletion.
While in the early stages of the crypto market, developers could only choose the Ethereum project and its Ethereum Virtual Machine (ETH), now it is possible to implement development in more than 200 projects.
Image by CoinGecko
The best known remain: Ethereum, Arbitrum & Optimism, Polygon, Solana, Cosmos, Avalanche, BSC, Polkadot and others.
Each of them has both disadvantages and advantages. For example, Ethereum is still the most expensive ecosystem to maintain, but it is the original smart contract platform with a professional community of developers and a developed community.
Solana is a competitive blockchain, with high throughput and inexpensive transactions. However, the network itself is characterized by volatility and frequent failures. Projects that believe in it (which is a large ecosystem) depend on its stability and performance assurance.
Polygon, Arbitrum & Optimism, Starknet, or Hermez are the same Ethereum's second-layer (L2) blockchain solutions, which simply offered their solution to the network problems of the world's second largest cryptocurrency.
BSC is a blockchain reputationally dependent on the performance of the Binance trading platform.
As we can see - there is no perfect solution. When choosing a blockchain, developers should proceed from the planned operational activity of their service and match the blockchain to their individual requirements.
Secure data storage
Cryptocurrency services require a huge amount of data and information to be stored securely when created. It is important for developers to choose the right storage protocol at the product creation stage. Arweave, IPFS and Filecoin storage remain the most popular in recent years. These services provide a reasonably low-cost, efficient way to store data on the network.
The technological solutions of the decentralized platforms GunDB and Ceramic Network will help to close the similar function, but outside the network. GunDB, by the way, has been on the market for quite some time.
However, it is impossible to say with certainty that blockchain project information storage solutions have reached their highest development yet. As in the story with the choice of blockchain for development, data storage issues, errors, and detected conflicts act as obstacles, as does the unresolved main task of developers of such services: integrating data storage solutions with as many blockchain protocols as possible.
Cryptocurrency oracles
A critical need in crypto development is the delivery of up-to-date and accurate data.
Blockchain oracles are secure pieces of middleware that represent the connection between various blockchains and any external, offchain, systems, including data providers, network APIs, providers, payment systems, other blockchains, etc. Most financial applications, especially in DeFi, use specialized providers. The most popular secure and accurate oracles on the market right now are ChainLink and Flux.
Blockchain nodes
Nodes are the intranet environment of the blockchain on which the developers created the service and are responsible for transmitting, capturing, preserving this information and keeping it secure. Nodes participate in consensus, confirm transactions, copy and duplicate to each unit the general information about the blockchain. It is possible to deploy a node on your own, but developers will face challenges and technical difficulties in deploying it: increased cost and capacity, limited Internet bandwidth, slowed network traffic, security risks, and so on.
Web developers in 2022 use node providers. GetBlock is one of the most experienced node providers, offering more than 40 blockchains on the core and test networks. The service supports development of popular Web3 applications and provides 99-100% availability for core networks.
Bottom line
Web development in 2022 should cover more and more tasks. Each service is evolving with the market, and our selection will help in identifying quality services in an abundant market of services.
