Development practice.
WHAT LANGUAGES ARE USED
Purpose-built languages for the major networks, differing by platform.
WHAT MAKES DEVELOPMENT DIFFERENT
Every operation costs money Storage is extremely expensive Code is public Deployment is frequently permanent Errors are financial and immediate
WHAT THAT DEMANDS
Extreme care, and verification far beyond ordinary software.
WHAT TO MINIMISE
Storage use Computation Contract size
WHY STORAGE ESPECIALLY
It is the most expensive operation by a wide margin.
WHAT TO AVOID
Loops over unbounded collections Operations whose cost grows with usage Complex logic where simple suffices
WHY UNBOUNDED LOOPS ARE DANGEROUS
They eventually exceed the limit, making the function permanently unusable.
WHAT TO USE
Established, audited libraries for standard functionality.
WHY
Reimplementing token standards or access control invites known errors.
WHAT TO TEST
Every path Every failure Every access control check Behaviour at boundaries Behaviour under adversarial conditions
WHAT TO RUN
Automated analysis tools designed for contract code.
WHAT TO ARRANGE BEFORE DEPLOYING ANYTHING HOLDING VALUE
An independent audit.
