According to the Upwork Q2 2018 Skills Index, Blockchain is the fastest-growing skill on the platform. With Bitcoin being a huge success, every industry now wants a piece of the cake (it’s Blockchain!). After all, Blockchain tech is an inspiring space with a massive potential for innovation. This has spurred the demand for skilled Blockchain specialists, who are currently the most highly valued professionals in the market.
However, bagging a job in Blockchain isn’t a cakewalk. You must first acquire the right skills and, most importantly, learn to work with different Blockchain tools required for Blockchain development. Blockchain course from a reputed institution can boost your chance of landing on a job on big firms. Also, if you wish to stay relevant in the market and offer your skills to a reputed organization, you need to leverage Blockchain development tools to their optimal capacity.
Blockchain tools not only simplify the process of Blockchain development but also help to strengthen your knowledge of the domain.
Top Blockchain Development Tools in 2019:
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Solidity
Solidity is, undoubtedly, one of the most popular languages used by Blockchain Developers. Influenced by C++, Python, and JavaScript, it was designed to target the Ethereum Virtual Machine(EVM). Solidity is statically typed, supports inheritance, libraries, and complex user-defined types.
Solidity supports the OOP paradigm and cis most commonly used for writing smart contracts. With Solidity, Blockchain Developers can write applications that can execute self-enforcing business logic embodied in smart contracts, thereby leaving a non-repudiable, and authoritative record of transactions. This comes in handy for creating contracts for voting, crowdfunding, multi-signature wallets, and blind auctions.
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Geth
Geth is an Ethereum node implementation built using the Go programming language. It is available in the three interfaces, including JSON-RPC server, command-line, and interactive console. Geth can be leveraged for Blockchain development on all three major operating systems – Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Geth is used for a host of different tasks on the Ethereum Blockchain, such as transferring tokens, mining ether tokens, creating smart contracts, and to explore block history. After installing Geth, you can either connect to an existing Blockchain or create your own. The good thing is that Geth simplifies things by automatically connecting to the Ethereum main net.
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Mist
Mist is the official Ethereum wallet developed by the creators of Ethereum. When it comes to Ethereum, before you can start using the platform, you must have a designated place where you can store your Ether tokens and execute your smart contracts. It is available for Windows (both 32- and 64-bit), Mac, and Linux (32- and 64-bit).
While Mist is particularly suitable for deploying smart contracts, you must remember that it is a full node wallet – you have to download the entire Ethereum blockchain, which is larger than 1TB. Another critical thing to keep in mind is to remember your Mist password since you can never change – it is a one-time setup ting.
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Solc
Solc (Solidity Compiler) is a Solidity command-line compiler written in C++. Its primary purpose is to convert Solidity scripts into a more readable format for the Ethereum Virtual Machine. While Solidity is a slimmed-down, loosely-typed language with a syntax similar to JavaScript, the smart contracts written in it need to be converted to a format that can be easily read and decoded by the EVM. That’s where Solc comes into the scene.
There are two types of Solc – Solc (coded in C++) and Solc-js (it uses Emscripten to cross-compile from the Solc source code from C++ to JavaScript). Solc comes natively with most of the Ethereum nodes. It can be used for offline compiling, as well.
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Remix
Remix IDE is a browser-based Blockchain tool used for the creation and deployment of smart contracts. Written in Javascript (so it can be accessed via any modern browser!), Remix can be used for writing, testing, debugging, and deploying smart contracts written in Solidity. It can be used either locally or in the browser. If you visit Remix’s website, you can see a ready-to-use screen:
Apart from having excellent documentation, Remix can seamlessly connect to the Ethereum blockchain through Metamask.
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Metamask
Metamask is a wallet designed to function that acts as a bridge between Ethereum Blockchain and a browser (Chrome or Firefox). Essentially, it acts as a browser extension. Metamask offers a software platform that allows you to serve Ether and other ERC-20 assets while also letting you interact with Ethereum Dapps. The best part – you can do so right from your browser.
Metamask can be linked with Shapeshift and Coinbase to sell and buy ETH and ERC20 tokens. It can also save keys for ERC20 tokens and Ether. Since it can interact with different Ethereum test networks, it makes an ideal wallet for Blockchain Developers. Once you installed the app in your browser, you have a built-in Ethereum wallet ready to be used.
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Truffle
Truffle is an Ethereum Blockchain framework designed to create a development environment for developing Ethereum-based apps. It comes equipped with a vast library that provides custom deployments for writing new smart contracts, develop complex Ethereum dApps, and help tackle other challenging requirements of Blockchain development.
Truffle can perform automated contract testing using Chai and Mocha. It can also enable smart contract development, including linking, compilation, and deployment. Plus, it offers a configurable build pipeline for performing custom build procedures.
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Ganache
Ganache is a Blockchain tool from the Truffle Suite that allows you to create your own private Ethereum blockchain to test dApps, execute commands, and inspect state while taking full control of the operation of the chain.
The greatest feature of Ganache is that it allows you to perform all the actions you would otherwise perform on the main chain, without incurring the cost for the same. Blockchain Developers use Ganache to test their smart contracts during development since it comes with many convenient options like advanced mining controls and a built-in block explorer.
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Blockchain Testnet
When talking about Blockchain development, we cannot stress enough on the importance of Blockchain Testnet. A Blockchain Testnet allows you to test dApps before making them live. Each blockchain solution has its unique Testnet, and it is highly recommended that you use the respective Testnet for the optimal result. There are three kinds of Blockchain Testnets – Public Test, Private Test, and GanacheCLI.
Testnets are extremely useful as it lets you test your dApps for bugs and errors without spending tons of cash or resources. For instance, Ethereum uses gas as the fuel for performing different operations. Spending on gas every time you need to do a test run can become a substantial financial burden. Thanks to Testnets, testing becomes feasible.
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Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS)
Since it is not practical (nor financially viable) for a company to implement a full end-to-end blockchain solution, it gave rise to the concept of BaaS. BaaS is modeled to function similarly as a SaaS model. It lets you leverage cloud-based solutions to build, host, and use your custom-made Blockchain apps, smart contracts, and functions on the Blockchain, with the cloud-based service provider handling and managing all the essential tasks/functions required to keep the Blockchain infrastructure operational and agile.
BaaS can be a convenient tool for individual entrepreneurs or companies who wish to adopt the Blockchain tech but haven’t been able to do so due to operational overhead and technical complexities. Today, there are many BaaS service providers such as Microsoft (Azure), Amazon (AWS Amplify), and SAP, to name a few.
Wrapping up…
So, that’s our list of the top ten Blockchain Tools/Blockchain Software every budding Blockchain Developer should experiment with. The Blockchain platform is relatively new, and hence, if you are ever-curious to try out new tools and acquire new Blockchain skills, you are guaranteed to have a promising career in Blockchain.
If you are curious about building blockchain from scratch, build smart contracts & chain codes, check out our Blockchain PG Certification from upGrad.
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