Build a Proof of Existence Blockchain With Substrate

HOW TO BUILD A PROOF OF EXISTENCE BLOCKCHAIN WITH SUBSTRATE?

The first step in getting started with Substrate is configuring your development environment. After that, programmers can update the runtime code for a node and then progressively scale it up to form a small network of validators.

The Blockchain with Substrate architecture allows users to build their own blockchains. While traditional blockchain development necessitates the creation of peer-to-peer networks, a database layer, and consensus methods, Substrate provides battle-tested software that you can modify to your exact requirements.

The first proof-of-existence platform was built as a result of a hack on the Bitcoin network. At the time, building an entire blockchain platform for this purpose would have been difficult. Substrate makes it possible, though not easy!

To demonstrate the ease of use of Substrate development, I chose to build a proof-of-existence blockchain.

What is Substrate?

The substrate is an open-source modular architecture that can be extended and modified to create interoperable blockchain networks like Polkadot. It is a Software Development Kit (SDK) that was intended to offer developers access to all of the main aspects of the blockchain and allow them to focus on the logic that will give your chain its creative individuality. The following characteristics distinguish Substrate from other distributed ledger platforms:

Open — The whole Substrate architecture and toolkit are accessible under an open-source license. Substrate’s basic components employ open protocols like JSON-RPC and libp2p, allowing you to build your own blockchain architecture. The Substrate also has an active, friendly, and helpful community that adds to its ecosystem. As the community expands, you can add more features to your blockchain.

Flexible — Many blockchain networks have tightly integrated subsystems that are difficult to disconnect from. Chains formed on forks of other blockchains may contain unobvious couplings, making it difficult to disentangle. The Substrate can be used to create a customized blockchain that can adapt to your needs and evolve with them as those needs change.

Future proof– The Substrate was designed to be modular and flexible in the future. The Substrate state transition mechanism is a separate WebAssembly runtime. Your nodes might be given the ability to modify the runtime, which would result in network runtime upgrades. Because nodes must take no action to use the new runtime, forkless updates are possible. To suit the needs of your users, your network’s runtime protocols may evolve gradually and potentially substantially.

Interoperation — Many blockchain systems have extremely limited interoperability with other blockchain systems, however, cross-consensus messaging enables all Substrate-based blockchains to communicate. Attaching Parachains to the Substrate allows them to share the security of relay chains and can also be used to establish autonomous networks.

Why do you want Substrate?

The creation of a blockchain is a difficult task. It necessitates the mastery of difficult technologies in order to provide a safe foundation on which apps can function and users can rely on, such as advanced cryptography and distributed network communication. Scalability, ownership, interoperability, and user-friendliness are all posing problems that must be addressed. The complexity creates a high barrier to entry for developers. Given this, the first question to be answered is, “What do you want to build?”

If you want to build a reliable and advanced blockchain. You may use Substrate to create a Blockchain platform that includes the following features:

– Properly tailored to the specific use case

– Connect to and communicate with various blockchain platforms.

 tailored using pre-set sustainable modular components

–  Has the ability to evolve and be enhanced throughout time

The Substrate blockchain framework strives to be the best for developing customizable blockchains. The Substrate resembles a blockchain SDK framework rather than a standalone blockchain. Substrate allows you to design a chain, allowing you to build beyond what others are capable of.

What type of programming language is used by Substrate?

Rust is a dynamically compiled programming language with a full system and ownership notion that is fast and memory-efficient. It enables developers to debug at build time and can be used to power performance-critical services while assuring memory and thread safety. Furthermore, Rust provides great documentation, an easy-to-use compiler, and premium tools like integrated package managers and multi-editors with features such as type inspection and auto-completion. Rust prevents all crashes, and it’s exciting because, like JavaScript, Ruby, and Python, it’s preconfigured to be secure. This is considerably more powerful than C/C++ since we cannot write erroneous parallel code and you can never discover a bug in rust. It quickly and properly reflects a wide range of programming paradigms.

Rust is responsible for a major chunk of Substrate’s extensibility and versatility as a platform for constructing mission-critical applications. The runtime and the outer node are two distinct architectural parts that make up the Substrate. Although complex Rust technologies such as multithreading and asynchronous Rust are used in the outer node code, runtime engineers aren’t directly exposed to them, making it easier for them to focus on the node’s business logic.

What is the connection between Substrate and Polkadot?

Web3 development is built on the Polkadot multichain network and layer-0 protocol. The substrate is the core blockchain SDK that programmers utilize to develop the Polkadot Network’s para chains. You may easily include substrate-based chains in Polkadot and Kusama to create a para chain or part thread. The SDK used to generate para chains is the substrate. Polkadot, on the other hand, is utilized to guard and communicate among the chains. Polkadot is compatible with all substrate-based para chains since they act in tandem.

Substrate and Polkadot are mutually beneficial, yet there are few alternatives to help Polkadot grow. Polkadot para chains can also be created and maintained using the substrate.

The substrate does not need to be linked to Kusama or Polkadot. A “solo-chain span” substrate-based chain can exist.

What does “proof of existence” mean?

The goal of proof-of-existence, as the name suggests, is to document and offer proof that specific information or entities exist. Because of how easily it functions, you can better understand PoE. A digital entity can have a timestamp and a signature attached to it as Proof-of-Existence, allowing authorized viewers to observe the record’s creation time and date.

How can a Proof of Existence blockchain be built using a substrate?

Proof-of-existence files that are distributed online are kept in this module.

Scope

Users can offer evidence that a file exists using this module. The owner’s soft measure may also be ascertained using this proof of existence. Instead of immediately uploading files to the blockchain, a file digest is constructed and kept on a chain along with the claimant and the upload date.

Anyone with access to the source file can create the same digest and verify the chain’s evidence of existence.

Traits

The implementation of the Currencytrait is a prerequisite for this module. The Balances module of the Substrate Runtime Module Library (SRML) is capable of carrying out this.

Modules

SRML Timestamp is a module that this one depends on.

Installation Process

Step 1: Runtime Cargo.toml installation

Include the following code in Runtime’s Cargo.toml file to add the module:

[dependencies.poe]

default_features = false

package = ‘proof-of-existence’

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

Step2

Update: Runtime’s std

std = [

‘poe/std’,

]

Step3

Implement trait: Runtime Lib.rs

impl poe::Trait for Runtime {

type Currency = Balances;

type Event = Event;

}

Now, use the following code to include this trait in the contract runtime! macro:

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

Step 4: View: Substrate PoE Reference Documents

Insert the following code to view the reference documentation for this module:

cargo doc –open

Last thoughts

As you can see, Substrate makes it simple to develop custom blockchains. The Substrate offers all of the infrastructure required to run a node, while SRML provides a collection of pre-built tools that you may use to extend your blockchain.

A flexible blockchain development platform like Substrate is necessary for Polkadot, referred to as “the blockchain of blockchains” and a crucial component of the Web3 technological stack. It eliminates all technological complications from blockchain development. As a result, Substrate forces a lot of blockchain developers to stay away from homogenous and constrictive smart contract environments that inhibit innovation and impede the use of Polkadot’s remarkable heterogeneous sharding technology.



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