06/27/2022–Astar announces enabling high performance WebAssembly (WASM) smart contracts on the Shiden native virtual machine, which runs parallel to the Shiden EVM, making Astar a space for both Solidity and Rust developers to build new applications. The announcement by Astar CTO Hoon Kim at Polkadot Decoded 2022 in Berlin is a call for Astar to take action and expedite the move towards a WASM future.
Building WASM contracts is pivotal towards our vision of a strong interoperable future on Polkadot–opening bidirectional HRMP channels between Shiden and other Kusama parachains, enabling seamless communication and movement of tokens across chains.
This will mean developers can build on both of our virtual machines–EVM and Substrate–now having the key to build WASM and target directly to Shiden substrate, while keeping the door open to the deep liquidity pools found on EVM networks, such as: Moonriver, Karura EVM+, or Astar EVM. Ink! is the preferred domain specific language of Parity, and the first language supported by Astar’s upcoming Swanky CLI tool. Contracts on Shiden and Astar native chains will support any language that can be compiled into WASM–ink, ask, C++, and even Solidity through a solang compiler. This will benefit anyone already building on blockchain and provide a low entry point for Web2 developers who are interested in creating dApps on Polkadot.
WASM smart contract building on Astar is still young and Shiden is just beginning to create a space for Web2 and Web3 developers to create innovative dApps. Coupling WASM smart contracts with the opportunity to earn an income through dApp staking, Shiden has become a new playground for any developer looking to build the future of blockchain. Further, Shiden is the foundation for end-users to try new applications and promises long-term success for investment groups looking for a new source of growth on Kusama and Polkadot.
About Astar
Astar Network is the Smart Contract Hub for WASM + EVM built on Polkadot and is one of the top Parachains in the Polkadot ecosystem in Total Value Locked and most Ethereum assets transferred over. Astar Network is the leading smart contract hub that connects the Polkadot ecosystem to Ethereum, Cosmos, and all major Layer 1 Blockchains. Astar Network supports dApps using multiple virtual machines — namely WASM and EVM — and offers the best technology solutions and financial incentives via its Build2Earn and Astar Incubation Program for Web3 developers to build on top of a secure, scalable, and interoperable blockchain.
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