How to Build a New Ecosystem

On the 4th of March, Pontem engaged in a panel discussion at MoveCon featuring industry leaders from Aptos, MomentumSafe, NodeReal, and Econia. The topic of the discussion was how to build a new ecosystem.

You can listen to the full recording on Twitter or YouTube.

Meet the Speakers:

• Wendy: Co-founder and CEO of MomentumSafe (MSafe), the first multi-signature, non-custodial digital asset management solution built on Move.  

• Alex:  Core developer and CEO of Econia, a high-performance on-chain order book for the Aptos blockchain that recently went live on testnet and is gearing up for its mainnet launch.

• Sherry: Professional engineer, and head of the Aptos validator community. Sherry is also a chaos master at Aptos, her role involves shielding users from chaos by ensuring that it only occurs in the background.

• Julian DiCarlo: Head of growth at Nodereal, a leading blockchain infrastructure and services provider that provides custom solutions for Web3 mass adoption. Nodereal is an early contributor to the Aptos ecosystem, and have built one of the first and largest third-party Aptos explorer – TraceMove

Building an Ecosystem for a New Programming Language: Challenges and Considerations

Building an ecosystem for a new programming language is a daunting task. Starting from scratch, with no existing user base or developer community, presents a unique set of challenges that require careful consideration and planning.

One of the key questions that arise is whether developers or users should come first. However, some of the key factors to consider when building an ecosystem for a new language include:

• Creating comprehensive tutorials and documentation:

Creating easy-to-understand tutorials and documentation that can guide developers through the process is essential to ensure that the learning curve is not too steep. Launching a developer website with intuitive demos can help them get started and feel motivated.

• Hosting hackathons:

Hosting hackathons can also be a great way to bootstrap an ecosystem. This approach can bring together developers with different skill levels and backgrounds, fostering a sense of community and collaboration.

Hackathons can also help to identify potential problems with the language, allowing developers to work on solutions and improve the overall experience.

Move Language: The Efficient Choice for Blockchain Developers

The Move language was designed specifically for blockchain development, and it offers numerous advantages to developers looking to create blockchain applications. These advantages make it easier for developers to get started with Move, even if they have little or no prior experience with the language.

Some of these advantages include:

1. Security: Move has been developed over the years to ensure that potential vulnerabilities that are common in other languages are removed. This makes it a more secure choice for blockchain applications, which is important given the high-value nature of cryptocurrency transactions.

2. Efficiency: Move was built on the foundation of Rust, a prevalent programming language known for its high performance and ability to streamline intricate programming tasks, making it a favored option for blockchain developers.

By leveraging Rust's strengths, Move makes it easy for developers to build efficient blockchain applications.

Getting Production-Ready: Insights from Aptos and Nodereal

Building a production-ready layer one blockchain is a complex challenge that requires a focus on reliability, scalability, and security. According to Sherry, creating a functional blockchain is not enough. Instead, it must be designed to support the needs of billions of users and their valuable assets.

To ensure a seamless user experience, the Aptos team invested a considerable amount of time and effort into contemplating edge cases and developing testing infrastructures. They carefully considered every possible scenario, from addressing user issues to mitigating costly engineering mistakes that could potentially result in billions of dollars in losses.

Similarly, the Nodereal team recognizes the importance of scalability and low latency in their services since they provide developers with a seamless infrastructure that allows them to build Web3 applications without the burden of technical details. This approach enables developers to concentrate on their work without worrying about infrastructure maintenance or locating a node.

The Security Concerns of Smart Contracts: How to Protect Your Blockchain Application

Building on blockchains eliminates the need for a traditional back-end, allowing developers to create sophisticated protocols with ease and minimal infrastructure. However, this also means that there are no DevOps to manage the backend, which raises concerns about the security of smart contracts.

Hence, developers must be security-minded and employ various protective measures to ensure the safety of their smart contracts. This includes using multi-sig solutions for infrastructure and monitoring services to keep an eye on the ecosystem.

The ecosystem around smart contracts is continually evolving, and developers must keep up with the latest solutions. Hackathons are an excellent way to bring developers together to brainstorm ideas and build new projects. These events foster community and creativity, creating a social dynamic that is necessary for the ecosystem's growth and development.

Finding the Balance: Navigating Decentralization in Web3

Decentralization removes the need for a single entity to have control over a network, which in turn creates a more trustless environment for users. However, there is a delicate balance that must be struck between performance, security, and decentralization, and finding that balance is critical to the success of any Web3 protocol.

The good news is that we are not limited to a single chain. The multi-chain world allows for monolithic chains that serve a specific purpose. This means that we can have chains that are optimized for speed, others that are optimized for security, and so on. This gives developers the flexibility to build systems that are tailored to their needs.

At the end of the day, it's important to remember that people are behind the development of these networks. It's not just about the technology; it's about the people who are building it. Hence, having the right values and principles is crucial to the success of any network.

This is why building a close-knit group of people with the right values is so important. It provides a strong foundation for the ecosystem to grow and thrive.

Aptos' Strategies for Future Network Traffic Demands

As blockchain technology continues to evolve, the need for networks to handle an increasing amount of traffic has become more pressing. The rise of NFTs on Solana, for example, led to congestion and downtime, highlighting the importance of network scalability and preparedness.

To address this issue, the Aptos team is:

1. Actively working on scaling its throughput and latency, as well as testing the network's ability to handle increasing traffic through load testing and simulation scenarios.

2. Working on the development of a “Preview Net” program, which will test the next generations of the network's consensus protocol to increase throughput by up to 100x.

3. Focusing on hardware scalability, with ample room for growth in machine resources should traffic increase.

4. Prioritizing transactions based on gas fees paid through the network's fee market. This ensures that the network does not crash even if there is a sudden surge in traffic.

The Chaos Master: Insights from Sherry on Managing Chaos and Uncertainty in Development

As the panel drew to a close, Sherry shared some insights into what keeps her up at night. According to her, she spends long nights pondering over the unknown scenarios and flaws in the development process that might lead to bugs and issues.

Being the "chaos master" on Aptos, she understands the significance of accounting for every conceivable scenario, while also acknowledging the inherent fallibility of human beings and the likelihood of bugs arising, particularly during rapid development stages.

Despite her concerns, Sherry takes comfort in the tools and procedures available to address potential issues, as well as the importance of collaboration and support among all relevant parties. With a network of skilled professionals available to troubleshoot and find solutions, She is confident that the Aptos team can confidently face any challenge that may arise.

ABOUT PONTEM

Pontem is a product development platform that enables global financial inclusion through blockchain technology. Pontem is developing infrastructure and decentralized tools for the fastest and most scalable Layer 1 blockchain – Aptos.

The Pontem Wallet is the gateway to the Aptos ecosystem available for Chrome,  Firefox, and iOS. Pontem Wallet users can send and receive tokens, connect to decentralized applications, and explore the Aptos ecosystem.

As a result of its partnership with Aptos, Pontem has developed foundational dApps like the Move Playground IDE, Liquidswap AMM, and ByteBabel code translator.