The current state of development of internet software
When browsing the internet, we often find ourselves spending a lot of time downloading apps, registering accounts, and signing agreements just to achieve a simple goal. This is because the current software market is characterized by closed and monopolistic tendencies, with little open connectivity between platforms. Developers are forced to continuously learn the standards of each platform in order to profit from them, even needing to learn different computer languages to create the same thing. This results in enormous integration costs and the inability to achieve true platform integration.
For example, when a blockchain developer wants to develop a project, they need to use Twitter to get traffic and publish timely messages, use Medium to publish white papers, use Discord for user management and registration, use Google Analytics for statistical analysis, use AWS to build servers, and also need to learn countless API documents and access various services. However, these platforms do not follow the same standards, resulting in an extremely steep learning curve.
Although some platforms such as WeChat mini-programs are attempting to create more lightweight software systems, they still cannot solve the problem of closedness. All the work of developers cannot be reused externally, which means that each platform needs to develop independent solutions for its own applications. Although this can bring some degree of convenience to users, fundamentally, such solutions are not sustainable.
We need a truly open and connected software market, where all platforms are truly connected in functionality, so that developers do not need to spend a lot of time learning different standards and computer languages to make a profit, and users do not need to spend a lot of time downloading apps, registering accounts, and performing other tedious operations. Only then can we truly achieve information and resource sharing on the Internet and realize a more efficient Internet experience.
How to improve the connectivity of software?
The original intention of blockchain is decentralization, trustworthiness, and openness. This concept allows us to get rid of third-party platforms and enjoy a more free and secure way of interaction. However, due to the limitations of smart contract computing power, the smart contracts we currently see cannot meet all needs, especially those of mainstream productivity tools. However, the emergence of internet computer technology has changed this situation. Internet computer contracts have stronger computing and storage capabilities, which can change the way current internet software is connected, bringing unprecedented experiences to developers and users.
Currently, IC contracts have demonstrated their superiority in several ways:
• Stronger contract computing and storage capabilities, which can realize most productivity scenarios and traditional application-level software.
• Through techniques such as Dao, Controller, setting black holes, launchtrail, etc., functions can be proven to be functional.
• All data can be standardized through Candid.
IC contracts can solve many problems:
• Reusability: Deploying functions on the blockchain can achieve decentralization without the need to adapt to each platform, avoiding the problem of duplicating functions.
• Openness: Due to the Candid specification, various platforms can easily merge functions based on the same specification, with almost no cost of duplicate learning.
• Accumulation: All users and data of your functions will eventually be collected in one smart contract, not on a platform.
• Trustworthy: Making functions trustworthy eliminates the need for third-party platform guarantees, providing greater application scenarios for functions.
• Peer-to-peer: Functions are peer-to-peer, meaning that users interact directly with the contract rather than the platform, which can provide higher privacy and security.
The emergence of IC contracts has brought stronger computing and storage capabilities to internet computers, providing better possibilities for decentralization, trustworthiness, and openness. It is believed that in the future, IC contracts will play a more important role in various application scenarios, bringing us better experiences and benefits.
How does Light change the way software connects?
Why start with an article?
As a special type of information carrier, an article can convey rich information and emotions. However, in the existing internet system, the functionality of an article is relatively limited, mainly composed of text, images, videos, and some specific functions such as voting, but overall the functionality is weak.
Nevertheless, an article as a carrier is very special. It can be descriptive, can provide space for imagination, can infect others, and can even be abstract. The beginning of something often starts with an introduction in an article.
Therefore, we will introduce decentralized functionality in the article. A simple matter can start with an article and end with the same article. For a complex matter, it can start from different articles on a planet. There is no need to repeatedly jump out of the article to perform operations or change the user’s connection to the functionality. These decentralized functions will be lighter, more convenient, and more user-friendly than all currently visible functions, reducing the threshold for users to use software and improving efficiency.
These decentralized functions are provided by smart contracts, which make the functionality more describable and ensure the success rate of using the functionality. They also ensure the coherence of the user experience, even when spanning multiple functions, and ensure the precision of the functionality without the need to embed a large software for a small function. In addition, decentralization has many advantages, such as enhancing the security and reliability of information, reducing dependence on centralization, and providing a more fair and transparent environment.
By introducing decentralized functionality, users can start exploring and discovering from different articles on a planet, enjoying a brand-new user experience and breaking through traditional functional barriers. For brands, it can truly provide everything for users with just one planet.
How is Light implemented?
Because IC smart contracts generally encapsulate a set of functionalities within the entire Canister. Although there are tools like Candid UI, they cannot effectively save logic and variables, so they can only exist as debugging tools. To truly achieve a user-friendly front-end, complex front-end logic is still required. The following figure shows the functional subdivision under the Record object for managing neurons, which can be further divided into more than a dozen functionalities, making it very complex.
Light provides a convenient web-based IDE that allows users to visually split, assign variables, and bind any level of Candid, making it easy to create interactive components with standard UI. In addition, it encapsulates the execution and rendering of UI components, enabling developers to easily embed these interactive components anywhere on the web. This approach makes it easier and more efficient for users to build decentralized interactive applications.
Short-term challenges
Due to the need to meet personalized requirements, standard UI components often cannot cover all user needs. More abstract UI components and even more templates need to be created. Handling logic flow is a major challenge for complex interactive logic. In addition, without the accumulation of traditional web2 software over decades, there were not many accessible smart contracts and functions at the beginning. Moreover, due to limited capabilities, not all web2 functions are suitable for porting to the blockchain. Overall, these difficulties can be overcome. However, these problems must be truthfully communicated.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein