The Blockchain Application Development Lifecycle

What is Blockchain Application Development?

Blockchain applications development refers to the process of creating a blockchain-native application. Blockchain development differs from traditional application development in a number of important ways.

In fact, a large amount of planning goes into blockchain development first due to additional considerations such as choosing the most appropriate promotional program, the desired level of transparency, specific group permissions and more.

Core blockchain developers are responsible for the entire blockchain life cycle. The life cycle includes research into its design and Innovative use cases of blockchain. Blockchain developers also configure blockchain websites and apps for various systems and their applications.

How is the Blockchain being Developed?

Databases and Data with blockchain technology are difficult for hacking or controlling it, making it an ideal place to store sensitive data. The development of Blockchain software requires an understanding of how blockchain technology works. In order to learn blockchain development, developers should be familiar with various concepts, for example, cryptography and popular blockchain programming languages ​​such as Solidity.

Much of the blockchain development focuses on information creation, that is, how a website should be built and how the data will be distributed and accessed with different levels of permissions. For example, whether it will be based on distributed ledger technology or not.

This decision will have an impact on everything from where the parties get access to the data, how the data should be shared between the various organizations, whether more voting will ensure data transfer, and more.

How can you become a Blockchain Developer?

Blockchain developer skills are in high demand right now. If the ultimate goal is to work for a blockchain development company, then a complete blockchain development tutorial should be the first item in any emerging blockchain developer checklist.

It is important to consider the life cycle of blockchain project development before starting a project. Dividing the way it wishes to use blockchain technology in the steps is very helpful. These steps are known to include the blockchain development process (also known as the blockchain life cycle).

The Blockchain Application Development process:

This process is tested and proven for blockchain developers in the industry. Planning the process in such a way, so that it produces very efficient and effective blockchain applications development process results. The eight-step process of developing a blockchain application is detailed below.

Eight steps in the blockchain life cycle:

Describe the problem that will be solved with the blockchain program.

The first step in this process involves identifying a problem that the blockchain can successfully solve. It can be both expensive and unnecessary to use the blockchain when it is not necessary.

Therefore, it is important to identify the real-world problem that can be solved by blockchain.

Choose the most suitable consensus mechanism.

Each blockchain project uses its own consensus algorithm. The most used mechanisms are proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS). Other consensus mechanism approaches such as Byzantine-fault-tolerance, proof-of-burn, proof-of-history, proof-of-activity and proof-of-capacity can only be accepted only if they are better suited to the work and for project use-case.

Decide on Programming Language and Blockchain

At this point, focus on building the UI of the app. The selected blockchain to be built will affect the programming language used, which will also affect the way users interact with the chain and the protocol. In addition, interoperability is a further consideration when considering language. But, which programming language should be used in developing projects on blockchain technology?

Some of the most popular programming languages and frameworks ​​for blockchain developers are as follows:

Solidity

Javascript

Golang

HTML/CSS

ReactJs

NodeJs

Python

Ruby

Rust

C

C++

After selecting a language, the blockchain developer must select a database that will be suitable for the project. MongoDB and MySQL are two popular options. But there are some decentralized databases as well such as Gundb, Orbitdb, Bigchaindb, etc.

Choose a blockchain development platform

At this stage, developers should identify which blockchain to build on. This allows for rapid development without having to consider unnecessary parts while developing a project on the blockchain from scratch. The process of choosing a blockchain platform depends on the compatibility and consensus algorithm mechanism required.

Blockchain development often relies on popular platforms designed to simplify the process. These platforms are used by both blockchain development companies and independent developers.

Some of the most common platforms are open blockchain platforms, such as

Ethereum

Polygon

Solana

Hyperledger

Binance Smart Chain

Corda

Tron

Avalanche

Cardano

Near

Harmony

And many more.

Blockchain Engineers should choose a platform that uses standard blockchain programming language. Every platform listed here will simplify the blockchain development cycle.

It’s best to look at the capabilities of each platform and the obstacles, which will help determine if a blockchain platform is right for a project.

Develop a strategy for the rest of the development process

In this step of the blockchain development process, check out the steps taken so far. Build a plan, and prioritize a comprehensive process strategy. This strategy should take into account for features of the selected platform.

Start Designing Blockchain Structures

Decide whether the blockchain will include specific permissions for targeted user groups or will include a public network. Next, decide if the app will require the use of a private or public blockchain network.

Also consider a hybrid consortium, or blockchain that is publicly approved. With a public blockchain, a participant can add information with the permission of other registered users.

Ultimately, the option to consider is the one that best suits the use case.

Upgrade the blockchain system and configure key features of the app. Make sure, permissions, block signatures, address formats, and key management are taken into consideration. These elements cannot be changed once they are started, so it is best to consider them from the beginning.

After this section, start working on the Application Programming Interface (API) for the blockchain application. APIs are used to perform testing and auditing tasks, generate important key pairs, and store or retrieve important data. The choice of blockchain APIs depends on the goal of the application. These APIs will provide great value to all users.

The developer must also set up middleware. Middleware is software that connects external systems to a blockchain, thus allowing connections between blockchain components and applications running on it.

Some APIs needed by almost every blockchain;

Key management

Smart asset lifecycle management

Smart contract management

Generation of keys and addresses

Digital signature APIs and hash number generators are required to validate data. The developer may use pre-built APIs in blockchain applications or choose to create new ones from scratch. Relying on pre-built APIs speeds up the development process while building APIs from scratch provides great flexibility.

Check out and release the alpha version of the app.

In this step, all the efforts collected from previous steps are paid off and the first version of the project is now ready for testing. At this stage in the development process, focus on key tasks. Blockchain developers should try to spot and fix potential problems as they arise.

It’s best to start with an MVP. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is all that is needed to prove the effectiveness of a blockchain model. If the application is stable, the developer may choose to integrate complex features.

How long does it take to build a Blockchain Based application?

The development phase of blockchain applications can take a few days, months to a year, or more. It is important to have a strategy and a road map. Blockchain developers need to understand how much time is needed to contribute to each step before moving on to the next steps.

Some questions to ask yourself when doing this step include the following:

What is the real-use for this application?

Does the project use smart contracts?

How quickly should previous versions be released in order to achieve MVP?

What are the ways in which blockchain technology will integrate into this project?

What blockchain programming language, external databases, servers, and hosting will the application use?

How will this blockchain app work with off-chain systems?

Will the blockchain system integrate mixed components into both external or on-chain applications?

Does the app require permissioned or public network?

The goal of this article is to create a timeline and produce a measurable flow of action with important steps. In the next article, we will try to deep dive into the actual components used in developing the applications on blockchain technology also will study and develop several projects on different blockchain platforms. Setting a milestone helps to track a blockchain project from its beginning to the end.

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