In the Web3 space, application development often comes with many considerations different from what Web2 demands. These include encryption levels, front-end connections to multiple chains, access to off-chain data, scaling a distributed consensus context and more.
Fortunately, many stand-alone tools, suites, add-ons, plugins and other resources have popped up to address one or more of these concerns. So if you’re planning on starting a Web3 project such as a DeFi app, NFT marketplace, Decentralized Identity, tokenization of real-world assets, or some other service, here are the top 8 essential tools for Web3 builders to consider:
1. Infura
When building a dApp, you’ll likely need a few pieces like APIs to connect front-ends and other Web 2.0 services to your on-chain assets. You may also need to set up or provision additional infrastructure to host all these linking pieces.
Accordingly, this is where Infura comes in. Infura combines blockchain APIs and other developer tools to provide an environment where you can focus on writing code to link separate software components and spend less time managing infrastructure.
Considering the managed approach, Infura makes it easier to scale your application by requesting more resources. It also offers high availability when accessing various networks, with up to 99.9% uptime.
2. Truffle
Truffle is a JavaScript-based framework that doesn’t just lean on one major strength but combines several resources. It lets you create smart contracts for EVM chains, run them in test environments, and work on their front-end attributes.
With Truffle, you can also create scripts to automate recurring processes and get better insight into bugs by zooming in on transactions. Another helpful Truffle quality is customizing your test environment to emulate an existing chain.
However, this feature becomes more potent when researching the relationship between dApps and their supporting chains, especially in areas like security and performance. By altering certain characteristics of your test environment and seeing the impact on your dApp, you can learn new ways to make both dApps and blockchains more efficient and secure.
And remember, Truffle ensures that the developer has the best possible experience. They can rely on extensions for end-to-end workflows and barely use the Command Line Interface (CLI). Basically, it can convey the simplicity of a beginner-level tool while packing a host of advanced features.
3. Hardhat
Hardhat is another toolset with a local Ethereum network node and VS Code extension capabilities, but with one slight difference. This kit also has Hardhat Runner, a central component that gives you tremendous automation abilities to easily manage repetitive tasks from a schedule and composition perspective.
Depending on the messages you get when performing actions like debugging, you can restructure some processes and reposition actions within a sequence to reduce the number of problems you run into further down the road and the complexity of solving them.
4. Substrate
This Parity-created framework offers an infrastructure to develop solutions enabling interactions between disparate blockchains. Using Substrate, you can easily integrate mobile and IoT devices, and your blockchain won’t need forking to upgrade. In addition, contributors have touted its simplicity, emphasizing the ability to set up a blockchain within an hour.
It is also a reliable tool for people who like the Rust approach and JavaScript. Substrate offers greater flexibility in handling asynchronous call optionality, encryption and permissions, and governance methods. Furthermore, Substrate is an excellent choice if you’re into the proof-of-authority consensus mechanism.
5. WatchData
WatchData’s major selling point is the integration of real-time blockchain data with minimal hiccups. Whenever you’re working on a dApp that needs to send on-chain data to another service like a block explorer, a centralized exchange or another dApp, the data may sometimes be in a different form than you’d like it to be.
You’ll need to understand what the receiving entity needs to derive from this data, then gauge the gap in how understandable it is. After that, you’ll have to transform raw or unstructured data into more coherent data sets and, in some cases, further tailor them to the specific recipients. WatchData helps you develop a system for doing this while ensuring data integrity and quality.
6. Remix
Remix is a browser-based Solidity Integrated Development Environment that allows developers to compile, test, debug and deploy smart contracts. This tool is more straightforward and ideal for people creating dApps or dApp components with simple logic.
Remix has built-in static analysis, and you can set up local chains and do trial runs for your contracts. However, you may need to bring in elements like the Hardhat add-on, which will help you gauge the gas required to run those contracts.
Remix is written in JavaScript and offers project templates and several plugins, so it’s an excellent tool for learning the fundamentals of smart contracts. This is why it has become an industry standard for many Web3 developers.
7. Foundry
The Foundry toolkit champions portability and modularity, enabling developers to create EVM-compatible dApps in an environment based on Rust. In addition, it comes with Forge, an Ethereum testing framework that makes compiling and testing smart contracts much faster.
Foundry also has Cast, dedicated to sending transactions, retrieving blockchain data and interacting with EVM smart contracts. There’s also Anvil, a local node that helps you get a preview of how your application would blend with the target blockchain. Foundry is very easy to install and allows you to override the VM state, perform fuzz testing and record debug information when testing.
8. OpenZeppelin Contracts Wizard
This is another tool that focuses on simplifying back-end coding. It enables an interactive approach to building dApps by letting you lay out what you’d like your application to do. Meanwhile, in the background, Contracts Wizard generates the Solidity code for various ERC token standards like ERC-20, ERC-1155 and ERC-721.
Wrapping Up
At the end of the day, to pick the right tools for your Web3 project, you need to ascertain what you want to offer users, the places (chains) where you want to provide it, and how swiftly you want to build it.
