What is Substrate Network and How it Works: Everything You Need to Know

What is Substrate and How it Works?

Have you ever heard of JavaScript web development frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue? These are some of the most popular technologies used by millions of web developers to construct robust web applications. For those who like to scroll endlessly on Instagram might not know, but they are using an application built on React JS.

Similarly, Substrate is also a development framework invented by Parity but meant for building the next generation needs like distributed blockchain networks and cryptocurrencies. Built on the top of the Rust programming language, it provides the developers with all the ready-made core components they need for making a distributed blockchain network such as:

Database

Networking

RPC synchronization

Cryptography

Transaction Queue

Consensus

An efficient and dynamic sandboxed WebAssembly runtime

These above components eliminate the need for building the blockchain network right from the scratch. Result? Immense saving in time as well as overheads. All you have to do is code your own runtime.

You should also know that Substrate works on the foundation of a three-layered multilayered architecture. The three layers viz. Substrate Core, Substrate SRML, and Substrate Node allow the developers to incorporate maintainability, scalability, data integrity, security, portability, and much more.

If you desire to go with Substrate SRML, then you will only need to select the modules that you need from the library and configure them according to your parameters. You also get the option to optimize the existing modules, if needed.

Coming to Substrate Node, you get a complete smart contract blockchain at the cost of providing a JSON config file which is not a difficult scenario at all.

To summarize it all together, Substrate segregates the individual functionalities of a blockchain as modules and then generalizes them in such a way, so that they can still be used for multiple scenarios, while their manageability makes near-instant implementation possible. In this way, the blockchain is developed superfast without suffering the pain of handling the complexity behind individual functionalities.

Substrate: The Genesis

The substrate can be traced back to the creative idea of pooling all the research resources that were generated while building Ethereum and Bitcoin implementations to make the blockchain development process as easy and flexible as possible. This idea has already been transformed into a practical reality because Substrate is already in use by multiple industries for creating complex functionalities (like smart contracts) easily in a squeezed time and budget.

Why Substrate Matters?

A substrate is like an ocean of opportunities to build scalable blockchain networks. This technology matters because it has created a dent in the development space with its inspiring benefits. Let’s have a look at some of those.

Substrate eliminates the need for implementing all the networking and consensus code from the scratch

It is comparatively easy to build complex libraries on Substrate

Blockchains created with Substrate can be easily connected to Polkadot

The substrate provides a fast and efficient database

It features a flexible runtime library

Substrate allows the integration of the existing data and business logic into the blockchain

Conclusion

This article provides an insight into Substrate and how it helps to build reliable blockchain systems. The substrate network is an open-source and modular platform being used in diverse industries like DeFi, gaming, finance, governance, and much more. In the journey Substrate development process, it has always been the priority to keep the things generic. This is one of the unique characteristics of Substrate which qualifies it to construct the technologies of tomorrow.

Post Contents