Since 2014, when Solidity was first proposed and developed by Gavin Wood. This programming language has come a long way. Nowadays, there are hundreds of thousands of blockchain developers learning this coding language. A number increasing over time along with blockchain technology advancements and popularity.

In this article, you will learn about what Solidity is about, and what data types it supports. Discover with Games for a Living the benefits of learning this programming language, and considerations about its future.

What is Solidity programming language, and how is it used in Ethereum Blockchain?

This is a high-level programming language that people can use to create Ethereum smart contracts. In other words, it serves to automate transactions on blockchain platforms. 

It has similar characteristics and syntax compared to other programming languages such as C++, Python, and JavaScript. Solidity is not the only coding language in the market. 

However, it is the most versatile and the most used language for implementing smart contracts and decentralized applications. It has a wide market adoption, and it runs on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

As the code behind Ethereum, Solidity is a language designed to deal with the software development challenges that exist on the Bitcoin platform. Bitcoin is a blockchain network focused on peer-to-peer currency exchange. This made it difficult to deal with any virtual and valuable assets other than cryptocurrencies.

This is why Ethereum created a new system based on a Solidity language they wrote themselves. It is more flexible, and it enables different kinds of uses, for instance:

• Creating and deploying contracts that are ‘smart’ on Ethereum. 
• It allows the use of tokens on Ethereum. Both, fungible tokens like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) like in-game items such as avatars, digital collectibles, or domain names.
• Introducing non-fungible tokens into yield farming pools. 
• Minting non-fungible tokens. 

Also, the new type of online organizational structure called Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) is mainly written in this programming language. Some process automation in this organizational structure includes making key decisions through votes and allocating the reputation of the members, depending on the contributions they made to the team. 

Solidity Basics: What data types does it support?

Solidity language program supports different common data types like the following:

• Integer: Integer values, whether they are signed or not, both are supported.
• String: Programmers can use single or double quotes to represent the string.
• Modifier: It ensures the logicality is met before executing the code for a smart contract. 
• Array: Singles and multidimensional arrays are supported with a syntax not too different from other OOP coding languages. 
• Boolean: Data returns 1 when it is true and 0 when it is false, depending on the condition state. 

Also, it supports more complex data types, such as ‘’Mapping’’, and data structures that serve to return values that are placed in specific storage locations.

Learning Solidity: What are the benefits?

There are some advantages that make Solidity more beneficial for web developers to learn all about it over other Ethereum based languages:

• The immutability: 

Once the code of Solidity is converted into machine code, it can be executed and made available in MetaMask, an Ethereum blockchain. Either if the smart contract is registered in Testnet, or in the real platform of Ethereum Blockchain, the registration of the content cannot be deleted. If the information can never be deleted by any person, company, or government, it offers people the freedom to work with autonomy. 

• Solidity community: 

Solidity was one of the first programming languages for smart contracts in the blockchain. This competitive advantage has allowed Solidity to have a large, supportive and accessible community. For developers, this means getting more resources available when they need help with this programming language. 

• It’s a Turing complete language: 

This means that Solidity is able to compute all computable functions, beyond just a handful of algorithms.

• Source codes are public: 

The source codes of the program made with Solidity can be accessed by all public from the blockchain. This means users can decompile the source code and access the sample of the original one. Even if they are in bytecode. 

• Inheritance is being supported: 

It allows carrying out projects with complex elements of programming. This is because predefined variables can be used for different functions in order to achieve the desired result. Therefore, it helps reduce the load of code involving the contracts. 

Solidity language: What about the future? (Blockchain)

Solidity is a relatively new language program. There have been some advancements driven by its own community helping with library and tools development. However, advancements are needed, so programmers can get more information concerning structures and other components. 

Also, antipatterns can occur because of the lack of documentation on the best practices to follow. This can cause the code to be less readable and even slow down the application. Thus, it could be said that learning Solidity could be a challenge.

But, how important will it be in the future? Is it worth learning Solidity over other established and traditional programming languages like Python and JavaScript? 

First, it must be said that blockchain technology is having exponential growth as web3 and decentralized ecosystems become the new reality. 

In fact, LinkedIn has put ‘Blockchain’ at the top of the ranking based on the top 10 hard skills people should learn. This is why an increasing number of developers are facing the necessity to learn about Ethereum. Alongside, businesses in the tech industry are also implementing blockchain technologies in their processes, to be up-to-date with the latest innovations. 

So, learning the know-how of this programming language while it’s on the ‘early adoption’ status, could give developers a first-move advantage. That is, being ahead in their careers. Once it becomes mainstream, the competition will increase as more people start learning these programming language skills. 

If you put yourself ahead of the game now, you will see benefits in the future.