How to create a dApp on Polkadot

What is Polkadot?

Polkadot is a next-generation blockchain that can bring all blockchains together and allow them to operate on a large scale. The main feature of Polkadot is to exchange data between different blockchains. The Polkadot design provides several advantages over many legacy networks, including transparent governance, cross-chain composability, and scalability upgradeability.

Polkadot Architecture

Polkadot combines Parachains and numerous heterogeneous blockchains into a unified network. All these chains are secure and connected by relay chains. They can use bridges to communicate these chains with external networks.

The following components of Polkadot perform consensus roles:-

• Parachains
• Fishermen
• Bridges - Used to communicate chains with external networks such as Ethereum and Bitcoin
• Relay Chain - Heart of Polkadot blockchain that is used for cross-chain interoperability, network consensus, and security
• Nominators
• Collators - Provide proof of validators and maintenance of shards 
• Validators

Advantages of Polkadot:-

• Scalability
• Heterogeneous Sharding
• Transparent governance
• Upgradability
• Cross-chain composability

Build a dApp on Polkadot

Substrate provides all the components needed for the development of a dApp on Polkadot. It helps to build customized projects as per requirement.

Prerequisites to develop a dApp on Polkadot:-

• Knowledge of Rust Programming
• Basic knowledge of software programming
• Use of terminal

Step 1:-

Set up an application using Substrate

1. Clone Substrate node template

• git clone https://github.com/substrate-developer-hub/substrate-node-template

2. Run Nightly build with Rust

• rustup update nightly
• rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly

3. Change the directory into Substrate node template folder

• cd substrate-node-template
• git checkout latest

4. Commands to compile and run the node template within a project

• cargo build --release

Step 2:-

Test and deploy your dApp on Polkadot

You may use Rococo to test your application. Rococo is a Polkadot Parachain testnet that employs Proof of Mechanism consensus. You can also another Polkadot Parachain testnet called Westend. But, Rococo will be more convenient as compared to Westend. You can deploy dApp after testing.

Conclusion

In this post, we have covered the development process of dApp on the Polkadot blockchain. Now, you will be able to create a dApp for enhanced interoperability, scalability, and more.