Web3 Developer Tools: Quick Guide

‍Web3 is expected to grow to an US$82 billion-dollar industry by 2030, and it isn't going away anytime soon. 

More and more developers are seriously considering a career shift from traditional web development in favor of a web3 career path.

The numbers don't lie, either: in 2021 alone, almost 35,000 new web developers contributed to open-source blockchain/crypto projects, representing the largest number of new entrants to the scene since 2018.

And, while Bitcoin and Ethereum maintain the largest mindshare across web3 developers (with Solidity being the main Ethereum smart contracting language), developer growth into other smart contract platforms and ecosystems such as Solana, Avalanche, and Binance Chain have definitely been outperforming the leaders in recent memory.

Nevertheless, despite the rise of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the next generation of smart contract platforms, and the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), blockchain gaming, and play-to-earn, web3 developers represent a tiny fraction of about 32 million software developers around the world.

The question is, why aren't there more developers in web3?

The primary reason is that web3 developer tools and infrastructure are significantly less robust and full-featured compared to the "traditional" web, or web2. 

But that's changing fast as more developers make the switch to web3. A worldwide contingent and ecosystem of web3 developers are working around the clock to make the transition to web3 more simple as the next iteration of the internet materializes.

Let's take a look at the emerging class of web3 developer tools in this article.

Web2 vs. Web3: The Differences

In a nutshell, software development refers to the process of developing computer programs. Every program is composed of the following components:

• The front-end. The front-end is the part of the program that displays the information to the user. This layer–the presentation layer–is what users interact with.
• The back-end. The back-end processes information and runs on a server remotely. This layer isn't seen by users, and is what basically what lies underneath the hood.
• The database. The database stores the critical data the program needs to run. The database is also located remotely.

There's really not a lot that sets web2 and web3 apart as far as front-end development is concerned. The same front-end that users interact with through desktop browsers, mobile browsers, and mobile devices is practically the same.

For instance, web3 apps like OpenSea or Uniswap look no different from traditional websites and web apps. The latter's front-end, for instance, is built using React — one of the most popular developer frameworks web developers use to create web and mobile app front-ends.

The main difference between web2 and web3 is the back-end — that is, the components running under the hood. The frameworks and database types that define web3, particularly in one of its fundamental concepts — user-defined ownership — make the web3 paradigm unique.

Web2 applications run on centralized databases. Web3 applications are built on distributed databases in the form of blockchain protocols. The latter requires novel backends and primitives in the form of crypto wallets.

The developer tools used in engineering, deploying, and maintaining web2 apps are extremely user and developer-friendly largely in part due to decades upon decades of accumulated knowledge and development. Frameworks, readymade bootstrap solutions, robust infrastructure, and open code libraries make building in web2 substantially easier.

That's not exactly the case in web3.

Web3 takes a bit more intuition and craftiness among dev teams, considering the specialized expertise needed to work with less developed and clunky infrastructure that requires plenty of manual processes. Nevertheless, web3 developer tools are fast improving as the technology matures to equip the next generation of developers in web3.

Let's take a look at the rapidly-developing web3 developer stack categorized by layers and what options exist for developers looking to make the web3 paradigm shift.

The Protocol Layer

Before diving into the deep end of web3 development, the first question an aspiring developers should first ask themselves is which blockchain they wish to build on. Different blockchain protocols require different skills. For instance, building on Ethereum requires knowledge on Ethereum smart contract development. The same can be said for building decentralized apps (dapps) and smart contracts on Solana – it all depends on blockchain technology.

Ethereum network layer 2 protocols like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon (Matic), for instance, can also be utilized by developers to create faster, more scalable dapps, while costing significantly less in transaction fees.

On the other hand, dapps that need to transfer value from one chain to another will require the use of cross-chain bridges like Connext or Synapse.

Developers can begin to incorporate the essential elements that make dapps possible once they have the protocol layer all sorted out.

The Infrastructure Layer

Next up, we have the infrastructure layer, or infrastructure primitives. Simply put, "infrastructure primitives" is just another fancy term to refer to the basic building blocks of a system that developers use for their programs to interact with the blockchain infrastructure that supports them.

Here are the basic building blocks of web3 development as follows.

• Node infrastructure providers. Blockchain nodes are responsible for a decentralized application's interaction with the underlying blockchain protocol. Developers building web3 apps can opt to run their own node, use a node provider, or use a node managed by other companies. Nodes are basically computers that store full copies, and write, read, and perform transactions on the blockchain while users interact with apps. Notable node infrastructure providers include Alchemy and Infura, which enables developers and startups in web3 to save on substantial time and effort, while reducing risks related to maintaining individual blockchain nodes online.
• Wallet & key management providers. Crypto wallets don't only serve as a place to access funds in web3. They are the primary way users interact with dapps, access DeFi protocols, mint, collect, and store NFTs, access and participate in the community, serve as their on-chain identity, and manage a user's private keys required to transact using web3 apps. Metamask is perhaps the most well-known browser-based crypto wallet in web3 which developers use to build, deploy, and test dapps. Moreover, it can be used as a browser extension.
• Identity providers. Identity protocols like the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) serve as a decentralized, open naming system based on the Ethereum blockchain and are used across its ecosystem. On the other hand, Lit Protocol provides developer tools and decentralized cryptography for access controls that work across platforms and blockchains.
• Decentralized compute providers. Like most of the current web, a majority of Ethereum and web3 nodes are running using centralized cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS). And why not? After all, the latter provides the requisite power and resources that web apps need to perform computational tasks. However, decentralized computing providers like Akash Network and Aleph.im have emerged as alternatives. Both companies provide peer-to-peer computing resources optimized for blockchain technology and developed for high performance.
• Decentralized storage providers. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud make up the majority of the web's storage providers, making large swathes of the internet overreliant on them. On the other hand, it's costly to store every bit of web3 app data on blockchain nodes. Decentralized storage providers combine storage and computing capacity of individual nodes into a decentralized, peer-to-peer network that can store multiple copies of data that is resistant to outages. Web3 has the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), Filecoin, and Arweave, to name a few.
• Oracles. Web3 apps built on Ethereum cannot natively store external data coming from other blockchains or off-chain data sources. Oracles like Chainlink connect the blockchain to data sources and blockchains to fetch on-chain and off-chain data so that they can be used in building smart contracts.
• Interoperability solutions. There are over a thousand blockchain ecosystems as of this writing, and that number is only set to grow in the future. However, very few have the actual ability to transact and share information across each blockchain. Interoperability solutions provide APIs and SDKs for developers to build apps that are capable of communicating and interacting with assets and applications cross-chain. Examples include Axelar Network, Astar Network, and Layer Zero.

The Essentials

Next up, let's take a look at the essential tools that web3 developers use to interact with the infrastructure layer.

• Development Frameworks & Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). These consist of comprehensive code libraries and facilities in software applications that developers use to make development easier. They help manage the visualization and interaction with client-facing content, manage permissions, and perform daily tasks for web apps. Frameworks are generally software components that have been prewritten and ready to use for a variety of applications so they don't need to build Ethereum smart contracts from scratch. Well-known web3 frameworks include Moralis, Truffle, HardHat, and OpenZeppelin. On the other hand, IDEs allow developers to write, compile, and debug code in a single piece of software. They are composed of build automation tools, a debugger, and a source code editor. Examples of IDEs include Visual Studio and Remix IDE. These allow you to create, build and test Solidity smart contracts from scratch right out of your browser, therefore enabling advanced smart contract development.
• Low-code/No-code smart contract platforms. Low-code/no-code platforms allow the fast deployment of web3 apps using drag-and-drop interfaces using tested, reusable smart contracts as templates without having to reinvent the wheel. For instance, companies like ThirdWeb and Settlemint offer low-to-no-code smart contract templates to create gas-efficient smart contracts that run right out of the box. They do not require the tedious smart contract validation that creating smart contracts from scratch typically requires.
• Data index & query services. Search engines are the bread and butter that people use in web2 to find and access data. Google is a perfect example of a data index and query service that billions use each day to fetch data in mere milliseconds. Web3, on the other hand, is emerging with decentralized indexing and querying services to help developers fetch and query data from the blockchain. For instance, The Graph provides APIs to query, index, and extract data from decentralized storage providers and blockchains that are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It's not called the "Google of Crypto" for nothing.
• Testing. It's critical to test smart contract functionality in web3 apps before they're deployed on-chain. Tenderly offers tools to help speed up development with human-readable stack traces (apart from enabling developers to test Ethereum smart contract logic), while Blocknative enables real-time monitoring of Ethereum transactions before they are submitted on-chain.
• Security. We've all heard about the plethora of smart contract exploits across the Ethereum ecosystem, apart from other smart contract platforms like Solana. Security platforms enable developers to secure and audit ETH smart contracts to build secure web3 apps. CertiK and Certora are examples of smart contract audit firms that offer services and tools for devs to nip security risks and vulnerabilities in the bud.
• Messaging. Companies like XMTP Labs and Push (formerly known as EPNS) enable secure messaging across web3 apps, allowing the latter to send secure communications and power notifications to their end users.
• Analytics. Analytics tools help measure how well users are interacting with a web app or service. However, web3 analytics have different touchpoints and services that require special analytics tools – existing services don't work as well for web3 as they do for web2. Fortunately, there is a wide array of analytics platforms that enable devs to visualize, extract, and analyze blockchain data. For instance, services like Messari and Nansen offer dashboards and APIs to organize and collate data and insights across web3 apps, NFTs, DeFi, and other smart contract applications.

The Application Enablement Layer

Finally, the app enablement layer brings all the layers together and puts them to use in specific web3 applications. Web3 apps including DeFi, DAOs, play-to-earn, blockchain gaming, NFTs, and everything in between each use their own tailor-made solutions for app enablement.

For instance, in the NFT space, specific NFT tools exist to design, create, and manage NFT and other non-fungible assets besides providing the requisite infrastructure. Meanwhile, governance tools enable the creation of DAOs and manage their governance and treasury. And last, but not least, blockchain gaming tools enable solutions to create metaverses and blockchain-based gaming applications.

Web3 Developer Tools are Constantly Evolving

We've barely scratched the surface of web3 as it is. The tools, infrastructure, and protocols we discussed make up the majority of the emergent and constantly-evolving web3 developer stack. Web3's interoperability and modularity enable endless iteration using its primitives to create novel, value-creating applications.

The architectural framework and layers that we mentioned will likely remain the same as time goes by. However, we can definitely expect to see novel tools come out of the web3 woodwork and lead to a dramatic evolution of the web3 developer stack in the years to come. 

There's no better time to be in web3 than yesterday – or right now.

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