Top 6 Tools for Cryptocurrency Developers

Marius Bogdan Dinu

@bdinu89

ChainpointCoinbaseEmbarkExchangeGanacheGethTrading

Back in its early days, the internet was slow and sluggish. One of the many reasons behind the mass adoption of the Internet is the products and services built on top of it. The more the internet grew, the higher it developed the concentration of adequate developer tooling, which helped create an excellent ecosystem for developers, resulting in high-value products and services for the end consumers.

The cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem is no different. Since the emergence of Bitcoin in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto laid the foundation of a decentralized payment system ready to disrupt the world of finance as we know it. Moving on, we saw Turing complete and programmable blockchain platforms like Ethereum, where the developers can build decentralized applications, commonly known as DApps.

Like the initial days of the internet, the cryptocurrency ecosystem seriously needed more developer tooling. As a result, the development ecosystem was limited to seasoned platform or protocol developers already in high shortage. However, as the cryptocurrency ecosystem evolves rapidly, we see many great tools and APIs for cryptocurrency developers, making it easier for them to get started and build unique products!

This article will explore the top 6 tools for cryptocurrency developers and enthusiasts!

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Coinbase API (SDKs and Client Libraries)

Coinbase is undoubtedly one of the most famous and widely used cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Coinbase has a powerful and versatile API, making it easier for cryptocurrency developers to integrate bitcoin cash, bitcoin, ethereum, and Litecoin into their applications.

Again, it is essential to mention that the Coinbase API only supports four cryptocurrencies, i.e., bitcoin cash, bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin. The Coinbase API has a variety of capabilities, including:

1. Generation of the wallets and addresses for supported cryptocurrencies.
2. Buying and selling of supported cryptocurrencies.
3. Send and receive the supported cryptocurrencies into your application.
4. Secure storage for the supported cryptocurrencies.
5. The retrieval of real-time information, including historical price data, etc.
6. Instant notifications for payment arrival and updates.

Coinbase also offers mobile SDKs and client libraries for their API to make it easier for the developers to use the Coinbase API in their applications. Aside from the standard API, Coinbase also offers the pro version of their API, which lets you trade programmatically on the coinbase exchange platform and takes a variable commission on every successful trade.

Coinbase also offers the ‘Coinbase Commerce SDK,’ which lets you easily integrate its API on the checkout pages, plugins, and embeddable widgets of your e-commerce platform. In addition, it also offers the ‘OAuth2 Coinbase Connect’ interface to help facilitate various other applications, making it easier for developers to integrate Coinbase API in their chosen platform.

Embark

Embark is a full-fledged framework for developing, testing and deploying decentralized applications (DApps). For example, suppose you are an ethereum smart contract developer. In that case, you know the pains of developing and deploying your smart contract on the blockchain, integrating it with your typical web application, and performing regular debugging and testing. Well, the Embark framework makes it all easy for you.

The tools provided by the Embark framework make the DApp development process very sleek and productive. With Embark, you can create and deploy your smart contracts with simple JS code. It offers a variety of functionalities, including:

1. Smart contract development, deployment, and management.
2. Debugging and Testing environment for your DApp.
3. End-to-End DApp development with services like IPFS and Whisper.
4. Powerful CLI for service monitoring and control.
5. A web-based dashboard and an explorer for better management.
6. Code editor for ease of development.

The Embark framework allows you to manage your front-end application with the deployed smart contract easily. To facilitate end-to-end development and deployment, Embark uses IPFS for decentralized storage and communication platforms like ‘Whisper’ and ‘Orbit.’ Embark integrates only with the Ethereum blockchain but plans to integrate with other leading smart contract platforms shortly.

Embark also supports multiple chains, including livenet, private net, and testnet, to quickly and easily test out your smart contract. Embark also has a feature where it ‘listens’ to track changes in the deployed smart contract and performs automatic redeployment if it detects any smart contract state changes.

Geth

The original Ethereum node is written in C/C++, which can become a little daunting to compile and run, especially for developers from Python and Go. This is where Geth comes to the rescue. Geth implements an Ethereum full node in the ‘Go’ programming language. Just like a normal Ethereum full node, Geth can perform many of the core functions, including:

1. Mining of the Ether tokens.
2. Transfer different types of Ethereum-based tokens between addresses.
3. Creation and execution of smart contracts on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
4. Block history records and exploration.

Geth can minimize many difficulties for those Ethereum developers with a background in Python and Go. It acts like a regular full node where you can run different commands on the CLI interface, interact with the live, private, and test net, create your private blockchain testing environment, and maintain a copy of the Ethereum blockchain.

With Geth, developers can initialize their private Ethereum blockchain based on the provided configuration. However, as Geth is a full node, it will automatically start downloading the Ethereum blockchain once connected to the mainnet, which can take a few hours or even days, depending upon the blockchain’s size. Therefore, an external hard drive is advisable instead of your local storage.

Geth is available on all major platforms, including Linux, Windows, and Mac. It is essential to mention that Geth is entirely open-source and licensed under GNU LGPL v3. You can download the source code from this GitHub repository.

Ganache

Previously known as testrpc, Ganache is a local blockchain emulator built for the Ethereum blockchain. Compelling and testing smart contracts on the testnet are sometimes prolonged, so Ganache is very useful! With Ganache, you can launch a private Ethereum blockchain to run smart contracts, execute commands, and inspect the blockchain network’s state. You can even define your parameters and control how the chain operates.

Ganache also comes with a private blockchain explorer where you can quickly see all the accounts’ status, incoming and outgoing transactions, account balances with wallet addresses, and more. It also includes continuous log outputs of Ganache’s internal blockchain network for crucial debugging information. You can also set up mining controls with a single click and configure custom block times for better execution, ensuring instant mining of the transactions and even zero transaction fees.

Ganache includes an easy-to-use and intuitive user interface to visualize all the necessary information and events. Just like Geth, Ganache is open-source under the license GNU LGPL v3. The GitHub repository for Ganache can be found here.

Chainpoint

Chainpoint does a straightforward job: to create a timestamped proof of any data by linking its hash to the Bitcoin blockchain. In nearly every blockchain application, you need a fixed timestamped verification of the data without needing a third party, and Chainpoint can come in handy in those situations.

Chainpoint takes the hash of the data, pushes it onto the Bitcoin blockchain, and you get what they call a ‘Chainpoint Proof’ certificate. This chain point proof certificate contains all the information necessary to verify that a hash of some data is anchored with the Bitcoin blockchain. In addition, Chainpoint offers a simple NodeJS API and a JS client to make things easier for cryptocurrency developers.

With Chainpoint, you can anchor any data in any format with the Bitcoin blockchain and verify the anchored data’s integrity without relying on any third party. In addition, Chainpoint offers a robust CLI interface for more effortless command execution and testing. For any developer looking to add this ‘permanent anchor and verification’ into its application, Chainpoint is the best tool!

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Conclusion

With many exciting developer tools in the cryptocurrency ecosystem today, developers can easily save time and build powerful consumer applications. In addition, cryptocurrency trading is once again on the rise. The developer tools make it much easier for developers to build applications for cryptocurrency trading and explore the possibilities that no one ever imagined.

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Try out these tools today and start building the future of cryptocurrency!