Have you ever imagined how crowdfunding, multi-signature wallets, etc. are possible? Well, this is possible with the help of solidity! Solidity is the statically typed, complex user-defined programming language that supports libraries and inheritance.
With the help of solidity, users can develop contracts for voting, blind auctions, crowdfunding, and multi-signature wallets. Want to know more about solidity? Let’s check all the useful information below.
Moreover, I have discussed whether it is worth learning the solidity in 2021 or not. Check the answer to this in the below section.
What is solidity?
It is a high-level contract-oriented language for building smart contracts. It was inspired by Python, C++, and JavaScript and was developed to target the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine).
In other words, solidity is a smart contract programming language focused on object-oriented programming. The main use of solidity is to execute smart contracts on several blockchain networks, the most common Ethereum.
Gavin Wood proposed Solidity in August 2014. Christian Reitwiessner led the Ethereum project’s Solidity team, which later developed the language.
It was created by Alex Beregszaszi, Christian Reitwiessner, and many former core contributors of Ethereum to allow smart contract writing on blockchain platforms like Ethereum.
What are the major terms used in solidity?
- Ethereum:
It is a decentralized or blockchain-based network that operates smart contracts or applications.
All these run as scheduled with no chance of failure, manipulation, fraud, or third-party intervention.
- Smart contract:
The smart contract is a computer protocol for digitally verifying, facilitating, or enforcing contract results and negotiation. Smart contracts allow for the execution of trustworthy transactions without the involvement of a third party.
Nick Szabo introduced the idea of smart contracts for the first time in 1994. Szabo is a legal theorist and cryptographer credited for starting the foundation for digital currency.
- Contract:
A Solidity contract is a set of data (its state) and code (its functions) that lives on the Ethereum blockchain at a specific address.
- Pragma:
- The first line is a pragma directive, indicating the source code that is written for Solidity 0.4.0.
- Since a pragma directive is only local to a source file, it means you can import another file, then pragma from the importing file will not immediately apply.
- First-line will be written as: Pragma solidity ^0.4.0;
- EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine):
It is the Ethereum runtime environment for smart contracts. The EVM focuses on providing protection and allowing computers worldwide to execute untrusted code.
The Ethereum Virtual Machine specializes in avoiding Denial-of-Service attacks and ascertains that programs do not have access to each other’s state, allowing communication to occur without any interruption.
The Ethereum Virtual Machine was created to serve as a runtime framework for Ethereum-based smart contracts.
List of key factors regarding solidity
- It resembles a modern programming language like JavaScript.
- It also includes a curly bracket–delimited functions, objects, and inheritance.
- The objects you construct run on the blockchain’s nodes. They store their internal databases in the ledger.
- It continues to exist until a transaction spends the final value. Your code can send and receive contracts from other smart contracts, allowing for complex transactions.
- The Ethereum code can only run if you pay for time on the nodes with “gas,” an internal currency—and the amount of gas you can use is strictly limited.
What is the basic syntax of solidity?
- Contract structure
pragma contract ^5.0.0
contract ContractName{
<variable declaration>
<mappings>
<constructor>
<functions>
<modifiers
}
- Function Syntax
function FunctionName(Arguments…)
<visibility> <state mutability> returns
(<return types>)
- Visibility
public — all
private — only this contract
internal-only this contract and contracts deriving from it
external — Cannot access internally, only externally
- State mutability
view –- not possible to change the state
payable — to get ether
pure –- not available for reading from or change the state
How to write the basic program of solidity?
Like other programming languages like Python and JavaScript, solidity also has the basic program as Hello World. This can be coded as:
Is solidity worth learning in 2021?
Well, as per the Google trends, solidity has got the popularity in the last 5 years. In 2019-2020, there is a drop in its popularity. But overall, it keeps on growing.
Because of the popularity, there is always a demand for solidity-skilled people. Moreover, this field also provides a handsome salary package.
Now, let’s find the reason why it is beneficial to learn solidity besides salary and job opportunities.
Recently, Tesla announced that they would be going to accept Bitcoin as the payment and would not convert it into USD or stable coin. This is great for cryptos.
And if things work properly, there would be a time when developers are required to understand how to develop apps, which can easily integrate with the blockchains.
In my opinion, you should start to learn solidity. This is one of the programming languages used to develop apps that can take advantage of Ethereum. So, it is quite worth learning solidity in 2021.
Conclusion
Solidity is going to be a new trend in the upcoming years. Moreover, it will play an important role in creating apps that easily benefit Ethereum. That is why it is always worth learning.
Above are the important terms that are used in solidity. Try to learn all these terms for a better understanding. If you have any issues with solidity, let me know through your comments.
Keep polishing your skills by reading COURSEMENTOR blogs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What language is solidity?
Solidity is a high-level language, the contract-oriented language used for performing smart contracts. It was inspired by Python, C++, and JavaScript.
Which solidity version should I use?
If you are deploying contracts, then it is better to use the latest released solidity version. The reason for this, the latest version has new features, bug fixing features, and more.
