Web3 is a fast-growing industry with lots of upside and downside. In simple terms, the aim of web3 is to make users anonymous and give them full power over their data. It does this with the power of blockchain,(yeah, a chain of blocks where data is stored and can be accessed by anyone on the internet). Some of the popular blockchains are Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, Algorand, and Near.
Blockchains provide technical users the ability to build on them, an application built on any blockchain is known as a Dapp (decentralized app). The typical development process of any Dapp is usually: Writing Smart contracts with Solidity, Rust Haskell or Teal. Connecting the smart contract to a node service provider like Alchemy or Infura Developing the Frontend of the Dapp Connecting the smart contract to the frontend Deployment to any hosting service like vercel or surge
This process looks intimidating for anyone looking into being a Dapp developer. Reach, a platform that makes developing secure Dapp easier and faster all in on codebase comes to the rescue. At the time of writing, It supports Ethereum and Algorand. It has lots of in-built checks to improve the developer experience. To get started, it is advisable you start with the Rock, Paper, and Scissors tutorial, this tutorial is well-detailed and easy to follow.
Though We (my teammates) have previous experience developing dapps on EVM chains and Near blockchain, we joined the Umoja 3 hackathon, just to fill our curiosity about what will make us create better dapps. On completing the RPS(Rock, Paper, and Scissors) tutorial, we could see the vast difference between our initial approach to developing dapps and building dapp with reach.
We were placed in a team of 3 ( though just two were active @Litmus, @titanium), with a mentor (@HazardCrypto) to help with the dapp we will build for the hackathon. There is a pre-approved list of projects we can choose from, so we opt in for the RSVP dapp, which simply helps event hosts manage attendance using the Algorand blockchain.
I decided to work on the front end in isolation using React and Tailwindcss, while my other teammate worked on the back end using reach and the Algorand chain. There was a merge error as reach is designed to work as a mono-repo. So we had to build thrash the Tailwind project, and create a new react app in the backend. Here is a video demo of our project
Our GitHub repo can be accessed here. Special thanks to our mentor, Hazard as he really provided the required assistance for development and ensure all hands were on deck during the hackathon.
We look forward to building more on the Reach platform.