How Substrate is Changing the Game: Creating Proof of Existence

Picture a world where technology isn’t just evolving – it’s bursting with potential, constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. This is the exhilarating realm of blockchain, and at the heart of this revolution is a key protagonist: Substrate. 

This isn’t just a buzzword in the tech-sphere; it’s an innovative platform that’s changing the way developers think about, design, and build blockchains. Its unique toolset and adaptability are creating a new outline for decentralized networks, sparking a transformation that’s as profound as it is exciting.

As complex as it all might seem, together we’ll unravel the intricacies and unearth the essence of this captivating technology. So, fasten your seatbelts. It’s time to embark on a thrilling journey into the nucleus of blockchain innovation.

A Chat on Polkadot & Substrate

Think of blockchain like a buzzing digital town square. It’s not a single entity but a collection of different hubs, each operating independently with its own flair. Picture a vibrant farmers’ market, with vendors offering unique products. 

Similarly, various blockchain platforms have been tailor-made for specific needs and thus possess individual strengths, drawbacks, and autonomy levels.

For instance, a particular blockchain might focus on speeding up transaction processing. However, the trade-off might be a slight dip in security and autonomy levels. That’s the vibrant variety and interchange in the blockchain world.

Bridging the Communication Gap: Enter Cross-Chain Tech

There’s a catch, though. Many of these blockchains act like isolated islands, unable to share information. This is where the magic of cross-chain tech, like Polkadot, waltzes in. 

Polkadot is a master facilitator, enabling seamless communication between different blockchains with the help of bridges and Parachains. Picture it as a competent translator in a multilingual conference, ensuring everyone understands each other.

In addition to promoting dialogue, Polkadot strengthens security, fosters scalability, and encourages innovation across blockchains.

Democratizing the Web with Polkadot

In Polka Dots vision, the Internet isn’t controlled by a handful of corporate juggernauts. Instead, it advocates a democratic web, putting the reins of technology use and data privacy firmly in users’ hands. 

From public and open to non-permissioned and permissioned, Polkadot is a champion of all types of blockchains, promoting data transmission across them.

Polkadot and Substrate: The Dynamic Duo of Web3 Development

In the blueprint of internet evolution, Polkadot acts as the foundational layer-0 protocol. It’s the chief architect designing the infrastructure for the next-gen internet, commonly known as Web3. Its master plan includes Parachains, which are built using a powerful blockchain tool called Substrate.

Working with Substrate to create a bespoke blockchain is akin to building a house from scratch. It gives you more leeway, adaptability, and convenience than renovating a pre-built property. Substrate is instrumental in designing blockchains built on ‘Proof of Existence’.

Substrate and Proof of Existence

Imagine needing to confirm a digital document’s presence at a specific time. Traditional methods might require a notary, but ‘Proof of Existence’ algorithms can do it without any middlemen. A blockchain equipped with this algorithm serves as an efficient digital notary. 

Substrate, therefore, stands as a solid foundation for building these notary-style blockchains.

Let’s dive deeper into the world of Substrate as well as blockchain development and shed light on their intricacies.

Discovering Substrate: Your All-In-One Blockchain Solution

Ever wanted to jump into the fascinating world of blockchain technology but didn’t know where to start? Say hello to Substrate! This powerful, open-source toolbox is here to help you construct diverse, interconnected blockchain structures, akin to well-known systems like Polkadot.

Substrate’s specialty? It’s a custom-made Software Development Kit (SDK) set up just for you! With it, you’ll have all the vital pieces of blockchain at your fingertips. Your primary job will then be crafting the unique logic that adds that distinctive spark to your chain.

But what makes Substrate special? Let’s dive into its key features.

Embracing Openness

When it comes to Substrate, openness is at its heart. You’ll find that everything from the Substrate toolkit to its architectural design is available under a public license. Essential tools such as jsonRPC and libp2p are at your disposal, granting you the liberty to craft your blockchain design to your heart’s content.

And what about the community? Substrate prides itself on its large, active, and highly supportive developer community. Their ongoing contributions assist to develop the ecosystem, allowing you to add an expanding number of functions in your blockchain.

Flexibility

Most blockchain systems out there are rather rigid, featuring subsystems that are hard to disassemble. This can lead to hidden linkages that, unfortunately, can undermine the whole system. Substrate begs to differ!

With Substrate, you can handpick the consensus mechanism, the network stack, or even the governance model that best aligns with your project. You can even build your own components! 

Substrate encourages modularity, enabling you to construct a chain with clear-cut components that resonate with your unique needs. And as your needs evolve, so can your blockchain, ensuring a seamless growth trajectory.

Future-proof

Substrate wasn’t just built to serve you today, it’s made to last. This adaptable and upgradable system showcases its state transition logic as an independent WebAssembly object, leading to the Substrate runtime.

Under certain conditions, your nodes might be granted the power to modify the Runtime on their own, resulting in network-wide runtime upgrades. 

Hence, Substrate allows for “forkless” updates, meaning your nodes typically won’t require any action to operate with the new Runtime. This paves the way for your network’s runtime protocols to evolve gradually, or even radically, to keep up with your user’s ever-changing needs.

Interoperability

There is a lack of broad interoperability between blockchain systems, which is a widespread problem. Substrate overcomes this obstacle using Cross-Consensus Messaging (XCM), allowing any Substrate-based Blockchains to interact with each other.

Do you want to benefit from the safety of the relay chain? You certainly can! You may use Substrate to create chains as independent systems (also referred to as solo chains) by tightly attaching a para chain. 

This contributes to greater connectivity, making Substrate a genuinely adaptable tool to use in your blockchain initiatives.

Why Substrate? Simplifying Your Blockchain Journey

Grasping the nuances of blockchain development can often feel like solving a complex puzzle. It demands a deep understanding of intricate technologies to create a reliable platform for applications to run and for users to confidently interact. 

Dealing with factors like adaptability, user rights, cross-functionality, and ease of use brings additional layers of challenges. For developers, these multifaceted aspects can act as high walls to scale. This leads us to an important question: What’s your end goal?

Are you set on launching a resilient and sophisticated blockchain? Substrate can assist you in crafting a blockchain ecosystem that encapsulates the following —

Molding to Your Unique Needs

Substrate provides the flexibility to design a blockchain environment that’s tailor-made to cater to your distinct needs. It gives you the creative liberty to architect a system that fits seamlessly with your unique vision.

Creating a Harmonious Blockchain Ecosystem

Substrate enables you to forge a blockchain environment that can easily synchronize and engage with a multitude of other blockchain platforms. It acts as a unifying medium, facilitating smooth interactions across various platforms.

Utilizing a Ready-to-Use Toolbox

Substrate comes with a set of durable modular parts that you can use to assemble your platform. This takes away the hassle of having to start from ground zero and provides you with a solid base for your development journey.

Embracing Future Adaptability

With Substrate, your blockchain environment possesses the ability to mature and evolve with changing times. This ensures that your blockchain ecosystem remains resilient and future-proof, ready to adapt to future advancements and challenges.

It is more than just a self-contained blockchain. It’s best viewed as a blockchain SDK framework that opens the door to unlimited creativity, enabling you to build a chain that pushes the envelope and transcends what is conventionally possible.

Demystifying Substrate’s Coding Language: A Deep Dive into Rust

Have you ever wondered what’s the driving force behind Substrate’s agility and adaptability? It’s the mighty Rust! Rust, with its dynamic compilation and robust system ownership model, is the language of choice for Substrate.

Rust

Imagine a nimble, memory-friendly coding language, equipped with built-in tools for debugging during compilation. That’s Rust for you! The language is known for providing vital functions while offering safe and robust memory management and threading.

In fact, according to a 2021 poll, 81% of Rust users use it at least once a week, as opposed to 72%.

Moreover, Rust is extremely user-friendly. Its well-documented nature, accessible compiler, and top-tier tools such as built-in package supervisors and editors make it a hit among developers. With Rust, you can enjoy features like type analysis and auto-fill.

At Webisoft, we’ve got a group of tech wizards, devoted to developing advanced blockchain applications using Rust. We also have our hands on every tool you could think of – CosmWasm, Solidity, Ethereum Layer 2, Terraform, Polygon, and Python

Safety First with Rust

Just like a well-prepared hiker, Rust is always ready for challenges. It is designed to prevent any crashes, making it as reliable as it can get. What makes it more appealing is its inherent secure nature, placing it in the same league as Ruby, JavaScript, and Python.

Here’s a fun fact: Rust’s power exceeds that of C/C++. How, you ask? It simply doesn’t allow faulty parallel code to be created, and you’ll never find a bug in Rust. It’s capable of representing various programming paradigms accurately and swiftly.

Rust and Substrate: The Perfect Match

Now, let’s connect the dots. Rust plays a significant role in Substrate’s ability to build mission-critical software. It’s like the backbone of Substrate, providing it with the necessary flexibility and expandability.

It consists of two primary architectural components: the external node and the runtime. While advanced Rust tech like asynchronous and multithreading. 

Rust is used in the external node code, the runtime engineers don’t have to deal with it directly. As a result, they can focus on the node’s business logic, like a maestro conducting a symphony.

Understanding the Bond Between Substrate and Polkadot

Imagine a thriving ecosystem being centered around a protocol named Polkadot – an intricate network that’s forming the backbone of Web3’s future. And at the heart of this ecosystem, there’s a key player – Substrate. This is the toolkit that developers turn to when creating the para chains that form Polkadot’s network.

Polkadot and Substrate: Partners in Tech

Think of Substrate-matched chains as puzzle pieces that easily fit into Kusama or Polkadot to form a para chain or para thread. In this partnership, Substrate crafts the para chains, while Polkadot ensures their security and facilitates their interaction. 

This fruitful collaboration gives access to an array of applications, resources, and para chains.

Although Substrate and Polkadot are quite a dynamic duo, there are other ways to navigate Polkadot’s development. For instance, Polkadot para chains can be formed and nurtured without even giving Substrate a call. 

Also, chains formed with Substrate can lead solo lives, not needing ties to Kusama or Polkadot. They’re like talented artists who can make magic on their own.

Demonstrating Substrate’s Power with Polkadot

Substrate’s capabilities are best demonstrated by the creation of Polkadot. Parity Technologies harnessed Substrate’s nimbleness, adaptability, and robustness to create Polkadot. Thus, it proves its prowess in crafting tailored blockchains for various use cases.

While linking up with Polkadot comes with a plethora of benefits like cross-chain communication, integrated security, and exposure to Polkadot’s blossoming ecosystem of apps, platforms, and users, Substrate doesn’t play favorites. It can connect to other blockchains, beyond Polkadot’s para chains.

Since we know how Substrate and Polkadot are related, let’s explore how Substrate is enabling the creation of the Blockchain for “Proof of Existence.”

Creating a Proof of Existence Blockchain with Substrate

Curious about how you can validate a file’s existence on a blockchain? Let’s walk through a fun, simple way to accomplish this with Substrate.

Think of a Proof of Existence as a virtual stamp of approval. It’s a kind of validation that confirms, yes, your file really does exist. It can also act as a casual nod toward ownership. But, hold on – blockchains can’t directly upload files. So, how does it work?

Imagine creating a unique thumbprint of your file – we’ll call this a ‘digest’. This digest, along with your claim of the file and the timestamp of when you uploaded it, gets added to the blockchain. 

Anyone who has access to your original file can then generate this same unique ‘thumbprint’ to verify that the Proof of Existence is on the blockchain.

Now, here’s an important piece of the puzzle – to get this module up and running, you need to implement something called the ‘Currency trait’. Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it sounds! The SRML Balances module can handle this for you.

Step 1: Paving the Way with Installation

First things first, we need to attach the module to our Runtime. To do this, we’re going to add some code to the Cargo.toml file. It’s like giving our Runtime a brand new accessory!

[dependencies.poe]

default_features = false

package = ‘proof-of-existence’

git = ‘https://github.com/substrate-developer-hub/substrate-proof-of-existence.git’  

Step 2: Sprucing Up the Runtime’s std

In the second step, it’s time to give our Runtime’s std a little revamp. 

std = [

…

‘poe/std’,

]

Step 3: Adding Some Flavor with Traits

impl poe::Trait for Runtime {

type Currency = Balances;

type Event = Event;

}

Next up, we’ll include a trait in the construct_runtime! macro. Think of this like adding a secret ingredient to a recipe. By implementing this trait in our Runtime Lib.rs, we’ll be enhancing our Runtime’s functionality.

POE: poe::{Module, Call, Storage, Event},

Step 4: A Peek into the Substrate PoE Reference docs

Last but not least, let’s look at the module’s reference documentation. We will acquire insights and see the characteristics of this module by entering a specific code. 

cargo doc –open

And that’s it! You’ve now walked through the roadmap of integrating a new module into Substrate’s Runtime. The journey may have been technical, but hopefully, it was a rewarding one too!

Final Words

Together, we’ve journeyed across the fascinating landscape of blockchain technology, making pit stops to marvel at the power and potential of Substrate. This potent framework stands as a pillar in our digital world, offering an exceptional platform for the creation and growth of individualized blockchains. 

Substrate’s contributions to the progress and evolution of decentralized networks are profound and far-reaching. Substrate marks our path toward more innovative and robust blockchain solutions in the ever-evolving digital era. 

In the grand scheme of the future of blockchain technology, it’s clear that Substrate occupies a pivotal position, steering us toward an exciting era of breakthroughs and advancements.Is your business ready for the next-generation of blockchain solutions? Don’t miss out! Explore how Webisoft’s cutting-edge Rust technology can help propel your business forward. Get in touch today, and let’s start building the future together.