By
Dimitar Bogdanov
January 28, 2022
4 Min Read
DeFi app development is a multi-stage process that requires careful planning and consideration of various factors, choosing the right technologies for a given project, efficient execution of the various milestones on a project roadmap, extensive testing and quality assurance period and so on. A successful DeFi project needs to serve a well understood use case and have a robust roadmap with clearly defined and attainable milestones. Here’s what you need to consider, when developing a DeFi application.
In order to build a successful DeFi application, developers need to consider a number of factors and execute with great precision on multiple fronts. Here are some of the most crucial steps for a successful blockchain development.
Having a good understanding of what makes your app special and desirable is key for making a great product. You need to identify the key features that comprise the core of your product and have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, what problems it’s meant to solve.
Performing a business and technical analysis early is also important and can help you determine the steps you need to take in order to turn your idea into a viable product.
A technique many starting projects find quite helpful is building a Proof of Concept. A PoC is a quick, efficient and inexpensive way to test the viability of your idea in a safe environment.
The blockchain industry and especially DeFi moves at such a rapid pace that developers need to act fast in order to keep up with the sector. In this fast-evolving space, today’s brilliant ideas quickly become old news, as the market shifts to the next groundbreaking innovation.
Nailing down the core vision behind your idea can give you a considerable head start during development. Careful and efficient planning, know-how, developers’ expertise and ability to execute will carry your project the rest of the way.
One strategy you can use to move quickly to market is building a minimum viable product (MVP) and releasing it to the public. This not only enables a fast market entry for your product, but also allows you to gain valuable feedback from actual users. With a clear vision about the product and a capable team of developers at your disposal, you can build an MVP quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, a well designed MVP can be easily expanded with the addition of new features and functionalities.
While speed is important, the need to develop quickly doesn’t mean that you can cut corners when it comes to security. You need to make sure that your product is as stable and secure as possible, in fact, security should be one of your top priorities when developing a DeFi application. No matter how revolutionary your product is, its days are numbered if it's deemed unreliable by the community.
One of the areas that demand extra care and attention is smart contract development. You need to make sure that the smart contracts that make up the backbone of your app are expertly written, their code is properly audited and checked for bugs, glitches, potential exploits, inefficiencies and other vulnerabilities. In case you’re using existing DeFi primitives, make sure that they are tried and tested and come from reputable platforms.
The best way to ensure that your DeFi app is stable and secure is through rigorous testing. In fact, when it comes to DeFi and blockchain technology, in general, testing is a must. However, because it’s also a very time consuming process, you need to be able to do testing as efficiently as possible.
Utilizing robust testing frameworks and tools can save you a lot of time, without compromising quality. For example, let’s take a look at LimeChain’s Matchstick tool. It’s an open source unit testing framework for the indexing and querying protocol The Graph. The tool makes subgraph unit testing much easier and faster.
While it may seem that writing smart contracts containing the logic that underpins the features and functionalities of your app is where the meat of DeFi app development is, the importance of frontend development should not be overlooked. Blockchain technology has given rise to new types of architectures, so it’s crucial that user interactions remain as seamless as in traditional apps. The novelty of an emerging technology can be quite intimidating to the average user and it's up to frontend developers to help people overcome that initial hurdle.
We already hinted at the importance of choosing the right tools and technologies to help you build your DeFi application. Listed below are some of the most popular tools for dApp development on Ethereum - the leading platform for decentralized applications and DeFi.
Hardhat is one of the best tools for dApp development. It’s a framework and an Ethereum development environment, where you can perform frequent tasks such as testing, compiling, deployment and debugging of smart contracts. Hardhat comes with a local Ethereum network node and supports other popular development tools such as Ganache and Ethers.js.
Ganache is similar to the Hardhat Network. With Ganache, you can create your own personal blockchain that runs on a local device. This is your safe environment, where you can develop, test and deploy smart contracts before they eventually go live on the Ethereum mainnet.
Truffle is a powerful development framework that is often used alongside Ganache. It allows you to code, compile, migrate and interact with smart contracts, as well as perform automated tests in both Solidity (Ethereum’s native programming language) and JavaScript.
OpenZeppelin is the place to go if you are writing smart contracts. It’s a library that contains many useful features, including a method for creating upgradable smart contracts.
On the frontend side we have the aforementioned Ethers.js, as well as Web3.js. These tools have everything you need to ensure smooth interaction with the Ethereum blockchain and ecosystem.
As one of the pioneers in the blockchain space, LimeChain has significant experience building DeFi apps and the techniques and principles outlined above inform every aspect of our DeFi app development process. Our tried and tested approach involves the following steps:
Using this method, we’ve helped many of our clients to make their blockchain idea a reality. So if you’re looking for a capable and experienced developer to help you with your DeFi project, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
