Smart contracts are a set of instructions or computer programs that run on the blockchain to automatically execute a digital agreement when certain conditions and payments are met. Today, we will examine Solidity, one of the programming languages that supports smart contract development on the blockchain.

Analyzing Solidity

We will measure each smart contract programming language by briefly discussing the following metrics and giving a rating for each of them on the language.

• Security

• Developer experience

• Readability

• Composability

• Gas efficiency

• Compatibility with the blockchain platform and cross-chain compatibility

The ratings are my personal opinions and should not be taken as fact, I think we should focus more on the analysis because ultimately it all depends on the developer’s choice for a smart contract programming language

Currently, Solidity is the most popular smart contract programming language and even the first smart contract programming language that runs on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and EVM-compatible blockchains. Here’s a quick breakdown of the metrics:

Security

Solidity generally is not known as the most secure smart contract programming language out there, inherently because developers need to be very careful and strictly follow security best practices to avoid security issues due to the language’s design choices. From integer overflows to reentrancy attacks and improper access controls, managing Solidity’s security can be challenging and this remains Solidity’s biggest issue when it comes to using it as a smart contract programming language, ultimately developers should take caution when using this language and always follow best practices.

Rating: 3/5

Developer Experience

Developer Experience refers to the developer’s interaction with various tools, environments, organizational structures, and processes in their workplace with an aim of creating a comfortable and enjoyable productive experience. It also has an additional definition that specifically includes our experience with SDKs, libraries and any technology we use for development including programming languages.

Solidity’s developer experience is generally considered good, due to the high demand of Solidity developers and the good pay that is attached to it. Its existence since 2014 has allowed for numerous tutorials, edits, blog posts, and guides to be created for a better understanding of the language and its compatibility with the EVM.

Rating: 4/5

Readability

If you’re familiar with the object-oriented paradigm and you’re coming from a C++ or JavaScript side of development, then transitioning to Solidity would be easy as it has a syntax similar to theirs. If not, you may have to learn a new paradigm and get used to it which is also not hard to do.

Here’s a sample of what a Solidity code looks like:

pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

import "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol";
import "@openzeppelin/contracts/access/Ownable.sol";

contract MyToken is ERC20, Ownable {
    int public myInt;
    uint public myUint;
    string public myString;

    constructor(uint256 initialSupply) ERC20("MyToken", "MTK") {
        _mint(msg.sender, initialSupply * (10 ** decimals()));
    }

    function mint(address to, uint256 amount) public onlyOwner {
        _mint(to, amount);
    }
}

I know some syntax may seem confusing right now, but give yourself time to get used to the new style even though it’s just a bit strict like assigning the specific data types for strings and integers. Without this strictness, however, there wouldn’t be consistency in your code.

Rating: 5/5

Composability

Composability in blockchain refers to a blockchain’s ability to interact with any smart contract, different blockchain protocols, and decentralized applications (dApps) to create new applications. Solidity has this great feature.

Rating: 5/5

Gas Efficiency

Solidity’s gas efficiency is not largely dependent on the smart contract programming language itself but of the developer’s knowledge and implementation of its best practices to achieve good gas efficiency. The aim of gas in Ethereum is to reward fuel-efficient development. For example, two smart contracts might perform the same task, but it is the one with the lower computational effort that is rewarded with lower gas fees.

Gas is the computational cost or effort required to run a smart contract on a blockchain. It is also a fee paid to the validators on the blockchain to execute a particular transaction or smart contract. The lesser the fee, the higher the chances your transaction is accepted and added to the blockchain

Ultimately, this depends on the developer and not the programming language so no rating here!

Compatibility With The Blockchain Platform and Cross-Chain Compatibility

Super compatible with its blockchain platform (Ethereum). This is A-okay here.

To help us understand better, cross-chain compatibility with other blockchain platforms doesn’t usually stem from the programming language itself but from some protocols that facilitate this, however, Solidity is EVM-compatible with other blockchains in the EVM network.

Solidity can also be used to build cross-chain functionality by utilizing cross-chain protocols like Chainlink CCIP, and Wormhole.

In essence, you can have some form of interoperability, communication and compatibility with the blockchain platform and others.

Rating: 5/5

Where to learn Solidity?

Here are two great platforms for learning solidity online:

1. Alchemy University

   

   Alchemy University is what I’m currently using to learn Solidity and it is awesome! The course videos and its interactive code platform to test out what you learn are amazing. Totally would recommend this!

2. CryptoZombie

   

   With over 400,000+ students and 1 million+ course completions, CryptoZombies takes you through an interactive session on not just Solidity, but a whole bouquet of courses on blockchain including NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), Chainlink, Ethereum, and more.

Conclusion

Solidity is a great programming language for building smart contracts, it excels in various aspects such as developer experience, composability, and more. It does lack a bit in the security aspect which the other programming languages like Rust have stated to be better at. We will be looking into more smart contract programming languages like Move, Vyper, etc in the future so I hope to see you in the next article!