Starcoin: A Practitioner of Move-Based Web3
Published at March 28, 2023 By Starcoin.Smart contracts are one of the most important features of blockchain technology and Web3 applications. They allow two or more parties to make a contract without the need for a third party, which is often required in traditional business transactions.
Due to the important role which they play in making decentralized finance feasible across different fields, it is relevant to explore ways to strengthen the security of smart contracts, making blockchain technology a robust alternative to traditional systems.
Starcoin builds smart contracts using the Move programming language. Move is a smart contract programming language with customizable resource types whose semantics are inspired by linear logic. Essentially, it addresses common security risks such as overflows and infinite incrementation.
Move absorbs experience and lessons learned from real contract vulnerabilities and supports contract applications in taking a big step forward in the direction of security. As the first permissionless public chain of the Move ecosystem, Starcoin leads the way in innovative deployment of Move.Here, we will look at some areas of functionality which Starcoin facilitates on Move.
a) Security
Starcoin is committed to building an important infrastructure in the Web3 era based on the Move smart contract language.
In addition to using Move as the best language for security, Starcoin uses a decentralized PoW consensus mechanism as the L1 consensus, while achieving scalability via its L2 interoperability. Move functions to optimize the secure transfer and movement of digital assets, limiting network exploitations on account of loopholes caused by oversight.
This is enabled through formal verification, where developers can check out most of the security risks through the compiler before the code is deployed.
b) Scalability
In order to solve the limitation of scalability, Starcoin adopts a layered design, the first layer is the basic consensus layer, and the second layer is the application smart contract layer. With the help of Move, the first layer focuses on providing users with safe, fast and flexible services for users to create, manage and trade their assets, while the second layer focuses on improving the scalability of asset transfer and exchange.
Based on resource-oriented programming, Move ensures that resources which are used to represent digital assets can only exist in one location at a time, cannot be copied, and cannot be accidentally lost or deleted. This helps to maximize efficiency, greatly saving on time, while maintaining high levels of safety and security at the foundation.
c) User-oriented
Compared with other congested and expensive public chains, Starcoin provides lightning-fast final results with almost zero gas fees; digital assets are easy to manage as account resources; account keys can be reset without changing addresses; secure and easy-to-use Accept Token function; mobile-friendly and other user-friendly design implementations indicate continuous innovation for users.
d) Developer experience
The developer should be supported throughout the entire development lifecycle, from initial application logic on-chain bug fixes.
Adopting Move, Starcoin provides a rich standard library (Stdlib) with useful data structures and data types for common use cases. Because the official implementation has been provided, based on the Stdlib base protocol, users can easily design their own applications, such as NFT applications or Oracle applications, without having to implement them themselves according to the protocol, and only need to implement the business logic contract code.
Other important practices of the Starcoin ecology based on Move include:
Move’s Resource type is inherently NFT, which cannot be copied and dropped. So for the NFT track, Starcoin has developed an official standard NFT protocol to make NFT secure, and free to combine. There are already several NFT applications in the Starcoin ecosystem.
Swap is the cornerstone of liquidity, and Move is the protective coat of capital security. The combination of Move and Swap allows funds to flow safely. Several Swap applications implemented based on Move are strongly present in the Starcoin ecosystem, providing liquidity for on-chain assets.
In the Stablecoin track, Move can also play a secure role. Several Move-implemented applications are already deployed on the Starcoin mainnet.
At Last
Starcoin sets the pace in terms of innovations based on Move. The security which Move provides to the ecosystem is an important step ahead in delivering a DeFi system that is secure and supportive of developments across the blockchain industry.