Writing a DAPP for the Ethereum block chain

warning: as this is a proof of concept to see if 4chan could be implemented on the blockchain, some people might post shocking pictures or videos on there. At the time of the writing nothing "bad" has happened, but take precautions if you're planning to take a look at it :)

The FiveMedium DAPP browsed from the Mist wallet

I've been dabbing in smart contract security (see my video here) and I found it natural to try and do a DAPP (decentralized application) myself. How hard can it be?

3.5 days later I've got back into Javascript after many years; I've learned Vue.js (kind of, my code is really ugly) and I've created my first DAPP!

First thing I'll have to say: it's hella fun.

Javascript has gone a long way and the Vue.js framework is just great! I've tried using React but I found it less developer-friendly, harder to learn and lacking in terms of template. It just didn't click. I guess coming from HTML first (and jQuery later) the Vue.js framework just makes more sense to me. It's all about having fun and I wasn't having any with React.

I still want to create, modify and query things the jQuery way, but I'm getting used to the javascript modernities (querySelector, arrow functions, ...) and the Vue.js way. I like it. It will take some time to get rid of my old habits and re-think the way I write front end code but I like it.

Writing the smart contract is quite straight forward. It's 128 lines of Solidity code, but most of it are comments (yes I comment my code). At one point I should publish it on etherscan.io because this is best practice. It's not compiled with the last version of Solidity (boooo!) because I deployed it via Mist and Mist doesn't have the last version of Solidity.

Writing the dapp with Vue.js and the web3.js API (the javascript library to interact with the blockchain via an ethereum node) is pretty straight forward as well. The learning curve is not bad and there are tons of resources for beginners. That is, until you test your dapp with a real wallet like the Metamask wallet (integrated as a browser plugin) or the official Mist wallet (Electron app). Different wallets offer different functions and versions of web3 (how it works: they inject the web3 object in your document and you can use it directly from your javascript webapp). They also (for the most part) refuse any synchronous calls on the web3 API without really providing ways for you to debug what is not synchronous in your call. A lot of functions have to be replaced for the asynchronous variants, any async/await has to disappear and you enter callback hell. Not fun.

The worst is that the documentation gets sparser and sparser as you enter the world of real DAPPs. You understand that things are changing really fast, that wallets will soon stop supporting web3.js and that a real API will be provided at some point. Everything is way more experimental than I had thought.

On top of that, Metamask doesn't let you watch for events yet, so say goodbye to your DAPP being "live" for their users.

To make the app offline, meaning browsable without a wallet, I use Infura. You basically just have to switch the url of the node to the ones Infura gives you, and web3 will be able to interact with it the same way it interacts with a real node. This is because the standard works via normal Json-RPC routes using the Json way to structure queries and responses. Unfortunately, like Metamask, Infura doesn't let you listen to events so the app is browsable, but not live.

I haven't taken the time to publish the smart contract on the real ethereum network yet. It's sitting on Rinkeby which is a test network where you can get ethers for free. I'm not going to get rich on a test network, and some of my friends are eyeballing me for this decision (I see you jc) but this is fun and I want people to try it for free :)

Is it hard? No but it's annoying. First I need to pull up the whole Ethereum blockchain.

As of April 19th, 2017, my blockchain size is 23.5 GB total.

from this Quora answer

Second, I need some ethers, and buying ethers from the UK is hard. Of course I already have some (I wouldn't be writing anything about ethereum if I wasn't invested), but I had to go through weeks of research to buy them. (If you're looking for an easy way, learn from my wasted time: transfer money on a Revolut account, change it to euro, do a free SEPA transfer to Kraken, buy ethers there.)

Anyone can replicate my work. The DAPP is client-side code (javascript) so anyone can download it and run it on their own page. the contract is also up there on the blockchain, it's public stuff. I don't really like this, but it is how Ethereum works. If I someday drop the page from the internet, anyone can get it and run it. Run it on their own server, but also run it locally from their own machine.

If you want to see how it works without getting a wallet:

But I recommend you to give a try to this new technology!

Download Mist, set the network to Rinkeby, grab some free ethers from the faucet there and browse to my DAPP FiveMedium.

Have fun!

PS: yes this is heavily inspired by 4chan.