Substrate
Substrate Key Points
- Substrate is a blockchain development framework that allows for the creation of customizable blockchains.
- It is developed by Parity Technologies, a core blockchain infrastructure company.
- Substrate significantly reduces the time and complexity of building blockchains as it provides essential core components.
- It supports a variety of consensus algorithms and includes a customizable execution function to define the blockchain’s logic.
- Substrate is the foundational technology behind Polkadot, a multi-chain platform.
Substrate Definition
Substrate is a modular framework developed by Parity Technologies that enables developers to build their own blockchain networks. It provides core components like networking, consensus mechanisms, and a runtime module library, allowing developers to focus on business logic and unique features. Substrate is also the technological backbone of Polkadot, a platform that connects multiple blockchains into one unified network.
What is Substrate?
Substrate is a blockchain-building framework that simplifies the process of creating new blockchains. It’s been designed to be flexible and adaptable, allowing for a high degree of customization in the creation of blockchains. With Substrate, the time and expertise needed to develop a blockchain from scratch are significantly reduced, making it an appealing option for developers and businesses. It also includes a runtime module library, allowing developers to select pre-built modules and customize their blockchain’s capabilities.
Who Created Substrate?
Substrate was created by Parity Technologies, a leading blockchain infrastructure company. Parity Technologies is known for its contributions to Ethereum and for creating Polkadot, a multi-chain platform that allows different blockchains to interoperate. The company was founded by Dr. Gavin Wood, who is also a co-founder of Ethereum and the creator of the Solidity programming language.
When Was Substrate Created?
Parity Technologies officially announced Substrate in November 2018. Since then, it has been continually updated and improved by the Parity team and the wider blockchain development community.
Where is Substrate Used?
Substrate is used anywhere there’s a need to create a blockchain, be it for a specific business use-case or for the creation of a new public blockchain network. It’s the underlying technology for Polkadot and Kusama networks, and many other projects have also built their blockchain networks using Substrate.
Why is Substrate Important?
Substrate is important because it simplifies and accelerates blockchain development. It provides a set of pre-built components, which reduces the complexity and time required to build a blockchain from scratch. This allows developers to focus on crafting unique features and business logic for their blockchain. Furthermore, it allows for interoperability with other blockchains built on Substrate, fostering a collaborative and connected blockchain ecosystem.
How Does Substrate Work?
Substrate works by offering a modular framework for blockchain development. It provides essential components such as a database, networking layer, consensus mechanism, and a runtime environment. These components can be customized and configured according to the specific requirements of a blockchain project. This flexibility enables the creation of a wide variety of blockchains, from private, permissioned networks to public, permissionless ones. The runtime environment is particularly significant as it allows developers to define the unique logic of their blockchain using Substrate’s runtime module library.