Crypto Needs A New push - Radix's Intuitive New Smart Contract Language Might Just Be It

The virtual world is getting ready for what could be the next big thing. And if you have been keeping pace with the latest developments on the internet, you have probably heard of Web 3.0.

Curious about what’s going to happen next for crypto? Join RadFi2022 on December 8 where Radix will unveil how the future of finance should look. Find out more.

‘Web 3.0’ is the term used to refer to the vision for the third iteration of the web – a decentralized, open-source alternative to the current infrastructure, with one key component being “smart contracts”, which were first brought into the crypto space by the Ethereum network. 

Smart contracts are self-executing pieces of code that execute when certain conditions are met. This allows trusted transactions and agreements to be carried out among anonymous parties without the need for a central authority or external enforcement mechanism. The code and the agreements contained therein exist across a distributed, decentralized network. 

For this reason, smart contracts can form the basis of the logic behind decentralized applications (dApps). And dApps can form the basis of decentralized finance (DeFi). 

The terms and conditions of DeFi smart contracts are coded using programming languages such as Solidity, Vyper, Python, or Rust.

Solidity, first developed in 2014, is one of the earliest smart contract programming languages. It is used extensively in creating smart contracts on Ethereum and other blockchain networks that use the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It was instrumental in driving the initial adoption of Web 3.0 among developers. 

But despite having been around for several years, Solidity and other smart contract languages have not been able to ramp up the adoption of Web 3.0 at a pace that may be necessary to deliver its vision as a more equitable, secure, and decentralized ecosystem of applications, tools, and information. 

The number of developers creating dApps for Web 3.0 is still abysmally low at only around 18,000 developers globally, as compared to Web 2.0 developers numbering around 30 million, of which only about 2500 developers are known to be working on DeFi projects specifically.

One of the reasons for this is the complexity involved in working with Solidity. Solidity is hard to learn and also involves long-winded coding, taking up months of developer time to create dApps on the blockchain.

Another reason is that it is highly vulnerable to hacks. Although Solidity has been the base for a number of successful dApps, over the years there have been several vulnerabilities and security issues identified in its application, which have even been exploited by bad actors in committing large-value financial crimes amounting to millions of dollars. 

Not just Solidity, other commonly used blockchain programming languages including VYper, Yul, and Rust also have been found wanting in the areas of security and ease of programming.

Scrypto Could Be A Game Changer In Web 3.0 And DeFi Adoption

One project that looks to be gaining rapid recognition as a next-generation full stack for DeFi — and is actively engaged in building a global decentralized future — is Radix. 

Radix has ambitious goals and says it aims to become the go-to network on which the new decentralized financial (DeFi) system of the future will be built. 

To help improve the adoption of Web 3.0, whilst also addressing the issues faced by crypto languages like Solidity, the team behind Radix has created a network-native programming language called Scrypto.

Scrypto is an asset-oriented smart contract language that will allow its developers to create “blueprints” (templates to create components out of) and “components” (Radix’s equivalent of smart contracts) which the company says are safer and faster to develop than Solidity smart contracts. 

A good example of what Scrypto aims to achieve could be found in how the two giants of the gaming industry – Unity and Unreal Engine – revolutionized the development of games by making the creation of games really simple, without requiring very high levels of technical expertise. They took slow, archaic, and hard-to-learn programming languages and replaced them through the use of a drag-and-drop interface and a library of plugins and assets –- which drastically cut programming time for game developers. The impact of this game-changing move was huge, with the gaming industry’s revenues now having overtaken those of the film and music industries combined.

Radix aims to achieve a similar impact on the Web 3.0 developer community through a number of its core builds, including Scrypto.

Unlike other programming languages in the space, Radix says Scrypto has been built to support the journey of its developers. For example, one element of the frameworks enables blueprints to be reused by other developers in the space. Developers would then only need to parameterize those blueprints to create their own instance of the smart contract component, as opposed to the existing model where they copy-paste-modify existing code which can introduce unforeseen errors. This approach also enables the creation of an ever-growing library of secure financial building blocks and helps dramatically cut-short development time.

Additionally, similar to the entertainment industry, the foundations built by Radix will eventually enable ‘royalties’ for its developer community. Every time a developer uses someone else’s blueprint, if opted in, the Radix royalties system would allow a royalty to flow to the developer who originally created that blueprint, potentially incentivizing a supercharged community of builders. 

Aside from the increased opportunity for the space to scale through developer improvements, one of Scrypto’s core strengths is that it is an asset-oriented programming language. Compared to the likes of Solidity which only allows messages to be sent, Scrypto is built to natively recognize and support assets (tokens) that live on the Radix network. With Solidity and other programming languages being “messages only”, recognizing tokens comes secondary and lays responsibility for the success of transactions heavily onto developers and the code – leaving exposures and vulnerabilities open to hacks as well as generally just making the entire process complex.

Radix Engine, Radix’s virtual machine, relies on what are known as “finite state machines” to guarantee that assets are properly accounted for, and can’t be lost or drained during a transaction. Radix says the reusability of Radix blueprints and components also contributes to making them more secure than traditional smart contracts which are written from scratch for every new dApp.

Overall, developers could benefit massively by using Scrypto, according to Radix, as it would dramatically decrease the barriers to learning, reduce the time and effort involved in developing dApps, and reduce the potential risk of developer error.

In times of uncertainty across the crypto space, DeFi remains resilient. Radix recognizes the fundamental issues within the space and the core needs required to educate and onboard the billions of people currently engaged with the traditional financial system and radically drive a better financial infrastructure through the opportunity of Web 3.0, changing the face of finance for good.

Interested in learning more? On Dec. 8, Radix will unveil how it’s going to take DeFi mainstream at RadFi 2022, a free virtual event.

Head here to learn more and sign up for the event.

To learn more about Radix, visit the company website.

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Featured image by Radix.x