Substrate: A Framework to Efficiently Build Different Blockchains

As you might have experienced or imagined, creating a blockchain platform from the get-go is extremely challenging. The execution of low-level network protocols as well as the consensus code writing it entails makes it pretty complex.

Enter Substrate by Parity Technologies. If you are linguistically inclined, you will be interested to know that the Oxford Dictionary defines the word ‘substrate’ as ‘a substance or layer that underlies something, or on which some process occurs. Clearly, it can be used to build something on it. People in the software realm say, why not blockchains?

Substrate is an open, flexible, interoperable, and future-proof set of libraries that features consensus, networking, and a cross-platform DB/file storage abstraction, among other value additions. It helps developers to focus on the crux of their project – the business logic of the chain – by providing generic implementations of typical algorithms.
In this blog, let’s take a closer look at its benefits, structure, technology, and how our team at Nitor Infotech has been working with it.

Why Use Substrate?

Here are the benefits of Substrate at a glance:

Simply put, Substrate as a blockchain framework enables users to make chains safer, cheaper, easier, and faster! This enables a user to start development without investing much time in chain, genesis, and consensus configuration. All of this is possible by configuring in a JSON file. It provides different options to use it and one of them is to use RPC endpoints.

Substrate endpoints are integrated in languages like Python, Ruby, and JavaScript. This library adds the integration of endpoints in PHP language increasing the usability of Substrate. This project will help to avail Substrate features in applications or platforms built using PHP language.

Do note that this is an addition to the Substrate ecosystem. This middle-level library is built to facilitate the PHP projects to use the power of blockchain in their projects. Its uses and integration are very simple.
Take a look at the image below that illustrates the component structure of Substrate:

Component structure

Here is a glimpse of the technology involved in the process:

Ecosystem Fit

• The library helps in making Substrate endpoints available for applications built in PHP.
• It is adding a library to the client integration section of Substrate.
• Any PHP application that needs to have a Substrate blockchain capability can use this library.
• The middle-level application extends the integration of Substrate.

Development done so far

Here is a sneak peek of what our team has built so far:

All the Substrate RPC endpoints are available in this package. A balance transfer example is also integrated in this. A user can use this package to perform transactions like balance transfer, getting the account details, getting the block details, current chain status, and so on.

How to use Lib

Lib is an API for Substrate. To utilize Lib, we need a running Substrate node. For running the Substrate node, the following steps need to be followed:

• git clone https://github.com/polkascan/substrate-interface.git
• cd substrate-interface
• git checkout 0.10.3
• git submodule update –init –recursive
• docker-compose -p substrate-interface -f docker-compose.polkadot-local.yml up –build –remove-orphans

Important notes

• The repository https://github.com/neha0921/package-test.git is a sample project to show how our repository https://github.com/neha0921/substrate-interface-package can be integrated to a PHP project.
• The repository https://github.com/neha0921/substrate-interface-package is the main repository which has all integrated endpoints.

A sample project is helpful in playing around with the library. To run the sample project, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Clone the demo/sample project

2. Update the composer

3. To test the output in the browser

4. In the browser use the following URL to check the output

Future Plans

There are some goals we envision when it comes to Substrate; we are thinking and working on these lines:

• Substrate is continuously changing, to support its functionality and working with changes, we are planning to provide lifetime support.
• We are working on blockchain as well, so we want to be involved in its development with multichain connectivity and future development.
• With our expertise in Rust development, we are looking to contribute to the development and issue fixing of Substrate.

It is evident that Substrate’s technology is building up a new wave of innovation in the blockchain industry, since it is effectively tackling a lot of limitations of previous-generation networks and is smoothly evolving according to developers’ needs. I hope my blog has helped you get better acquainted with it.

Get in touch with us at Nitor Infotech to share your comments or learn more about us and click here to learn more about the astonishing possibilities of blockchain technology. Also check out our interesting video that will acquaint you with the array of advantages and industry use cases of blockchain.