Looking for Advice for Developing an Internet Computer Decentralised Application (dApp)

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Hello Everyone :hugs:,

Although I’m still learning about blockchain technology and decentralised apps (dApps), I can’t wait to get started and create something worthwhile. The Internet Computer is my choice because of its special features and ability to grow the internet itself. On the other hand, I’m now getting acquainted with this ecosystem’s best practices and development tools.

On the following points, I would be very grateful for any advice or resource the community might provide:

Getting Started: When programming on an Internet computer, what are the fundamental tools, frameworks, & libraries that I need to know about? :thinking: Exist any essential guides or materials that I should review to assist me fast catch up? :thinking:

Canisters, or smart contracts: I’ve heard about the idea of canister in Internet Computers, but I’m not quite sure how they vary from standard smart contracts on various blockchains. Could someone maybe clarify in layman’s words and maybe provide a simple example or use in case? :thinking:

Best Practices: When creating dApps on Internet computers, what are the best practices to make sure security, scalability, and speed are met? :thinking: Are there typical hazards I should stay away from? :thinking:

Utilisation and Expenses: I’m interested in the deployment procedure. How much does it cost to set up and keep up an Internet Computer dApp? :thinking: In what way does this differ from other blockchain systems? :thinking:

Community Projects: Lastly, are there any open-source or community-driven projects that I can become involved with or learn from? :thinking: I would love to have some hands-on experience.

Thank you in advance for your help and support.

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This series of posts was made to make getting started easy: https://internetcomputer.org/docs/current/tutorials/developer-journey/
For anything else, either search the docs or use the chatbot at the top of the docs pages. It can point you to most things that you’re looking for.

A canister is more or less a smart contract together with its state, but we call them canisters because the capabilities are pretty different from typical smart contracts. The two biggest differences are that canister work in an async actor model and canisters can have much larger states that typical smart contracts (few hundred GB compared to data usually measured in MB at best)

For security, again have a look at the docs. Scalability and speed are usually only a concern later on since a single canister can often handle O(100) update transactions per second

Deployment is super cheap. I’ve developed canisters for weeks directly on mainnet without burning through more than $2-3 in gas. The biggest difference is the reverse gas model, search the docs for an explanation.

For community projects have a look at the ecosystem page: ICP Ecosystem | Internet Computer

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