The blockchain ecosystem has been evolving massively daily. New technologies are popping up every day trying to solve one problem or the other. Similarly, new programming languages and frameworks are emerging at a high pace. One recent contender that is generating a lot of buzz is Rust. Adopted for its speed, security, and memory safety features, Rust has quickly become a sweet darling of the blockchain community. Seems like this is just another language hype that might soon die, just like many crypto projects in the space that come with lots of hype and end up becoming pump and dump. Is the hype about Rust justified? Is it truly the future of blockchain development? This is what we will find out soon enough, come with me let’s explore this mystery.

What is Rust?

Before we move any further into proving if Rust is the future of blockchain or not, it is important to first understand what it is.

Rust is a multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language that is fully focused on performance, type safety, and concurrency. Rust is known for its speed, security, and memory safety features which is why it is the popular choice for system programming, embedded systems, and web development. Rust has also been the go-to programming language for many blockchain technologies and most of the new programming languages in the blockchain ecosystem are either built as a Rust extension or they model the Rust features.

Rust was developed by Mozilla and was first released in 2010. It was built to provide low-level control over system resources while preventing common programming errors.

Why is Rust Gaining Traction in Blockchain?

If you have been around the blockchain space for a while and have interacted with some decentralized applications, on the Ethereum chain, you may have noticed the delay in the processing time of some transactions. Similarly, we know that security is one of the watchwords of the blockchain, now with these few highlights let’s explore why most blockchains might prefer using Rust.

There are several reasons why Rust is gaining traction in the blockchain space, this is because of some sweet features and potentials to revolutionize the way we build secure decentralized applications, these features are:

Speed

Rust is known for its super speed which makes it the ideal programming language for high-performance applications on the blockchain. Imagine the experience that comes with building your decentralized application using Rust. New blockchain technologies are trying to solve the scalability issues of Ethereum and to achieve this, they go for Rust which is already super fast.

Security

Rust has a memory safety feature that makes it very difficult to introduce memory-related vulnerabilities which is one of the major sources of security breaches in traditional software. Rust utilizes ownership and borrowing features to prevent these common memory-related vulnerabilities. This is very important in blockchain development where security is the center of development and vulnerabilities can lead to serious consequences like loss of huge funds.

Concurrency

Developing complex blockchain applications most times requires handling multiple tasks simultaneously. For instance, blockchain networks often involve concurrent processes such as handling multiple transactions simultaneously. Rust has built-in support for concurrency, which simplifies writing efficient concurrent codes. This enables the smooth operation of decentralized applications that interact with multiple users and data.

Lucrative Opportunities

Many developers are running to learn Rust because of the numerous opportunities it offers. Building on most of the blockchains like Solana, Sui, Aptos, StarkNet, and Polkadot requires that you have a deep understanding of Rust programming language. Although some of these blockchains have their programming languages, they are all dependent on Rust, hence understanding Rust very well gives you an edge to build on any of them. For instance ink! programming language is used to write smart contracts on substrate blockchains like Polkadot. Ink! is an extension of Rust and everything about Rust applies to ink! Likewise, move programming language for Aptos and Sui blockchain. Cairo is the programming language used for writing smart contracts on StarkNet and Cairo is also dependent on Rust, then finally we have the Solana and Near blockchain that uses Rust for smart contract development.

Now you see that with the knowledge of Rust (one programming language), a developer has many opportunities to get hired and apply their knowledge.

Growing Community

The love for Rust is growing rapidly with active members trying to build almost everything that exists with Rust. This is because Rust can be used almost anywhere, name it; web development, blockchain development, embedded systems, and protocol engineering. The Rust community has a package manager called Cargo, which makes it easy to manage dependencies and building projects.

Challenges Associated with Rust

Most things that come with pros have their cons, Rust is not an exception. Despite Rust being a blockchain darling, most darlings have their shortcomings.

Steep Learning Curve

Learning Rust is quite difficult compared to other programming languages like Python, Golang, and JavaScript. Rust has a very steep learning curve, especially with its unique ownership and borrowing system. This can be a barrier to entry for newcomers.

Small Community

Even though the Rust community is fast-growing, passionate, and supportive, it is currently smaller than those of some other popular blockchain languages. This might make it hard to find support or collaboration on specific projects.

Tooling Challenges

Compared to other programming languages, the tooling ecosystem of Rust is quite at an immature stage, unlike languages like Python and JavaScript. This makes it difficult to find tools and libraries needed for some specific blockchain projects.

Rust, the Future of Blockchain Development: Hype or Reality?

It is too early to say with certainty that Rust will become the dominant programming language for blockchain development. However, it has the potential to achieve this, pointing to its unique features such as speed, security, and concurrency, making it the compelling choice for many blockchain projects ranging from decentralized applications to the blockchain protocol itself.

The pros of using Rust for blockchain development outweigh the cons. This is because of the opportunities it offers as the go-to language for blockchain applications looking to solve problems of scalability and security. It is relatively new and the community will grow over time as the tooling ecosystem matures.

The hype surrounding Rust is valid, but it is quite important to understand its strength and challenges before choosing it for whatsoever reason. Rust has the potential to become the master in building next-generation blockchain solutions.