1.First of all
Interacting with Blockchain paves the way for developers looking to leverage blockchain technology. It helps them build decentralized apps, execute smart contracts, and integrate blockchain features. In this article, we will cover all the prerequisites and steps required to set up the right environment, perform operations, and develop better solutions and applications on blockchain. Are you ready?
2. Setting up the environment
When configuring your environment, it is important to choose the right tools based on your interests and requirements.
Node connectivity is exactly what it sounds like: connecting nodes in a network. These nodes are the gateways to access blockchain data and services.
Most blockchain nodes provide remote procedure call (RPC) and WebSocket endpoints, with RPC primarily used for synchronous requests and Websockets for real-time data and event descriptions.
3. Establish a connection
There are various libraries available to establish the connection, most of which are based on the two most popular programming languages: Python and JavaScript.
The JavaScript libraries used primarily to interact with Ethereum nodes are Web3.js and ethers.js. Web3.py is the Python equivalent of web3.js and is also used to interact with Ethereum nodes.
Other libraries include Go-Ethereum, which is based on Golang, and Nethereum, which is based on C#.
Additionally, for other programming languages, you can review and configure the documentation for various languages and their libraries.
Using APIs and libraries to interact with external networks makes interaction easier. Popular APIs include Infura, which provides scalable infrastructure, and Alchemy, which is used for Ethereum development. Infura Infura provides a robust infrastructure for linking to the Ethereum network. Infura makes it easy to connect to Ethereum by providing a reliable and scalable API service. Other APIs include Quicknode, Moralis, and Cloudflare’s Ethereum Gateway.
There are many different APIs available, but the setup process follows these general steps:
Create an account Generate an API key Configure the connection using the generated key.
4. Querying the Blockchain
Querying on a blockchain is similar to querying time series data in any other database: you request data access and then retrieve and read the data.
You can get different types of information from the blockchain, such as block details, transaction data, account balances, etc. The libraries mentioned earlier have functions to perform read operations, for example, Web3.js has methods such as web3.eth.getBlock() and web3.eth.getTransaction().
Blockchain networks create events for certain actions, and you can set up listeners to respond to these events as they happen in real time. Use WebSocket connections or polling to stay up to date with the latest events and data, which is a form of data processing.
5. Writing to the blockchain
To put data on the blockchain, you need to create and sign transactions and operate smart contracts. In this section, we’ll show you how to do this using well-known libraries.
Construct and sign the transaction:
Javascript (Web3.js)
const Web3 = require(‘web3’);const web3 = new Web3(‘https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/YOUR_INFURA_PROJECT_ID’);
const account = web3.eth.accounts.privateKeyToAccount(‘YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY’);
web3.eth.accounts.wallet.add(account);
web3.eth.defaultAccount = account.address;
constant tx = {
From: account.address,
To: ‘RECIPIENT_ADDRESS’,
Value: web3.utils.toWei(‘0.1’, ‘ether’),
Gas: 21000,
};
web3.eth.sendTransaction(send)
.on(‘Receipt’, console.log)
.on(‘Error’, console.error);
Using Web3.py (Python code)
Import Web3 from web3
web3 = Web3(Web3.HTTPProvider(‘https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/YOUR_INFURA_PROJECT_ID’))
account = web3.eth.account.privateKeyToAccount(‘YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY’)
tx = { ‘from’: account.address, ‘to’: ‘RECIPIENT_ADDRESS’, ‘value’: web3.toWei(0.1, ‘ether’), ‘gas’: 21000, ‘nonce’: web3.eth.getTransactionCount( account.address),
}
signed_tx = account.signTransaction(tx)tx_hash = web3.eth.sendRawTransaction(signed_tx.rawTransaction)receipt = web3.eth.waitForTransactionReceipt(tx_hash)print(receipt)
Once a transaction is written, it is sent to the blockchain network for validation and inclusion in a block.
JavaScript (Web3.js)
\web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction (Signed transaction)
.on(‘Receipt’, console.log)
.on(‘Error’, console.error);
Python (Web3.py)
tx_hash = web3.eth.sendRawTransaction(signed_tx.rawTransaction)receipt = web3.eth.waitForTransactionReceipt(tx_hash)print(receipt)
Smart contract interactions:
To interact with a smart contract that is already running, you need to use certain functions to read and modify the contract’s stored information (state variables). This interaction allows you to take advantage of all the capabilities that smart contracts can provide, allowing you to create complex functionality in your dApps (decentralized applications).
Interacting with a smart contract:
composition:
const Web3 = require(‘web3’);const web3 = new Web3(‘https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/YOUR_INFURA_PROJECT_ID’);
Read from the smart contract:
constant contract ABI = [/* ABI array */];const contractAddress = ‘YOUR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS’;const contract = new web3.eth.Contract(contractABI, contractAddress);
Calling the function:
contract.methods.getBalance(‘0xYourAccountAddress’).call()
.then(balance => {
console.log(‘Balance:’, balance);
})
.catch(Error => {
console.error(‘Error:’, error);
});
write:
const account = web3.eth.accounts.privateKeyToAccount(‘YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY’);
web3.eth.accounts.wallet.add(account);
web3.eth.defaultAccount = account.address;
const data = contract.methods.transfer(‘0xRecipientAddress’, web3.utils.toWei(‘1’, ‘ether’)).encodeABI();
constant tx = {
From: account.address,
To: Contract address,
Gas: 2000000,
Data: Data,
};
web3.eth.sendTransaction(send)
.on(‘Receipt’, Receipt => {
console.log(‘Transaction received:’, received);
})
.on(‘error’, error => {
console.error(‘Error:’, error);
});
6. Handling the Response
Properly handling responses from blockchain interactions is key to creating reliable and easy-to-use apps: you need to understand how to keep track of transaction receipts and parse the logs and events that smart contracts generate.
Once you post every transaction, a receipt will be generated containing information such as:
Transaction hash: A unique identification code. Status: Indicates the status of the transaction as 0 or 1. Block number: The block the transaction was included in. Gas used: The amount of gas used in the transaction. Log: A log generated by the transaction to analyze the event.
example:
tx_hash = web3.eth.sendRawTransaction(signed_tx.rawTransaction)
Receive = web3.eth.waitForTransactionReceipt(tx_hash)
In case of receipt[‘status’] == 1:
print(‘The transaction was successful!’)
other than that:
print(‘Transaction failed!’)print(‘Transaction receipt:’, Receipt)
Transactions and smart contracts create logs and events that provide useful details about the steps taken and the results.
Example: Javascript code
Contract.Event.MyEvent({
From block: 0
}, (error, event) => {
if (error) {
console.error(‘Event Error:’, error);
} other than that {
console.log(‘Event data:’, event);
});
7. Security Considerations
Security is a principle of blockchain, so it is important to take it into consideration.
As you know, protecting your private keys is very important since there are access restrictions to them. You can use hardware wallets or other storage options such as AWS KMS, HashiCorp Vault, etc.
Also, never hardcode secret key values in your code, always use environment variables or secure storage.
It is important to implement proper access control mechanisms for blockchain interactions. Implement role-based access control and multi-signature wallets to ensure control and critical interactions are secure.
8. Performance Optimization
Optimizing blockchain performance is necessary to make applications more responsive and cost-effective.
Efficient data query techniques to reduce latency
Batch requests: This means bundling multiple requests into one batch to improve latency. Use caching mechanisms: Set up a cache to store frequently used information and reduce repeated queries to the blockchain. Gas optimization: Optimize the code of your smart contracts to optimize the gas used. Use libraries such as OpenZeppelin for optimized functionality. Minimize the storage used and perform batch operations to reduce the cost of gas used.
9. Testing interactions
Product testing is important in any development field and is crucial to ensure reliability and functionality.
Set up and use a local test network to simulate blockchain interactions:
Setting up Ganache for Ethereum:
npm install -g ganache-cli
Ganache-Cherry
const web3 = new Web3(‘http://localhost:8545’); Mocking blockchain interactions:
Use a mocking library such as Eth-gas-Reporter to track your gas usage.
npm install eth-gas-reporter –save-dev
Module.exports = {
Network: {
Development: {
Host: “127.0.0.1”,
Port: 8545,
Network ID: “*”,
}
},
Plugin: [“solidity-coverage”, “eth-gas-reporter”],
};
10. Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD)
Integrating blockchain integration testing and automating deployment strengthens the process and improves reliability.
When we talk about automated testing, incorporating a CI/CD pipeline is inevitable, and for that we can use truffle and hardhat.
Writing automated testing and deployment workflows ensures code consistency and enables rapid iteration.
11. Monitoring and Maintenance
Setting up monitoring tools to track blockchain interactions:
Prometheus and Grafana: They work together in that Prometheus collects metrics and Grafana visualizes them.
The installation steps are as follows:
Please install it from the official website.
Config:Global: scrape_interval: 15s
scrape_configs: – job name: ‘ethereum’
Static configuration:
– Target: [‘localhost:8545’]
Use exporters to make metrics available to Prometheus.
docker run -d -p 8008:8008 hunterlong/ethereum-prometheus-exporter -ethereum.uri http://localhost:8545
Ensure persistent and reliable connections to blockchain nodes. Implement reconnection logic to handle node downtime and maintain continuous operation.
12. Advanced Topics
A layer 2 solution is used for scalability.
Lightning Network: Bitcoin uses this off-chain modification for faster and cheaper transfers. It sets up payment paths between users.
Plasma and Rollups: Ethereum is extended by these tools, which process transactions off-chain and provide simple summaries to the main chain, thus reducing the work of the main blockchain.
Cross-Chain Interactions:
Cross-chain interactions are used for interoperability.
Techniques for interacting with multiple blockchain networks:
It allows for exchanges between two different blockchains without a third party, and uses Hased-Time Locked Contracts (HTLC) to ensure both parties meet the terms.
Interoperability Protocols:
Polkadot and Cosmos allow blockchains to freely exchange messages and interoperate using inter-blockchain communication protocols.
13. Conclusion
The blockchain field is constantly changing, with new tools and methods constantly emerging. As you continue to learn, explore how you can customize and improve the way you interact based on the needs of your specific project. Keep up with the latest breakthroughs, advance your blockchain development skills, and create powerful, fault-tolerant decentralized apps. Have fun coding!
Also see: Understanding Blockchain Networks and Nodes
