Introduction:

For easy non-technical comprehension of this article, firstly, Computer components are grouped into two major parts – Hardware and Software.

Computer hardware is any physical device used in or with the machine, while software is a collection of programmed instruction codes used to tell the computer what to do. In other words, hardware is a product you can hold in your hand, whereas software cannot be held in your hand. Hardware can be touched (it is physical) but software cannot (it is virtual).

What is Software Development:

Software development focuses on the programs used in computer systems. It involves conceptualizing, creating, programming, documenting, testing, improving and maintaining software – its components, and frameworks.

Software development generally create programs and applications for desktop, mobile platforms and Website interactions. Any programming developed, which is virtual and runs on a computer is Software development.  This will therefore include SMART CONTRACTS created on the blockchain technology. 

However, in this article, Web Apps, Mobile Apps and Desktop Apps will be loosely qualified as General Software Development, while we draw a comparison between them and Smart Contracts Development. 

Software development can be divided into two separate focuses, namely: 

• Client side (Front-end)
• Server side (Back end)

Client-side (Front-end) development is responsible for every element that users can directly access on the page of an Application. Everything the users can see and interact with; From arrangement, to aesthetics, to easy navigation. 

Server-side (Backend) development supports the elements in the systems that make up the digital infrastructure of the applications. That is, the set of instructions that influences the workability of the application. What is clicked on and what response it provides.

Client-side systems allow the users to tell the application what they want it to do, and the server-side systems are responsible for fulfilling those requests. Either ways, both are dependent on code. 

What are Smart Contracts?

A Smart contract, just like the traditional contract, is an agreement between two or more parties but it is stored on a blockchain – a Web 3 Technology. Every such contract has a predefined set of rules and conditions and is automatically executed when those conditions are met. These contracts are guaranteed by the consensus (agreement) of the whole blockchain network.

Unlike the traditional contract,(that are described in a natural, human language), smart contracts are agreements on rules that determine the relationship between different parties which are written in codes. They are very logical – following an “if this, then that” structure. This means they behave exactly as programmed and cannot be changed.

Differences between Smart Contract Development and General Software Development;

Firstly, while general Software Development is divided into two parts – Backend or Front end; Smart contract development is fully Backend. It determines the rules a blockchain application functions by.

Furthermore, smart contracts as one of the Web 3 (blockchain) applications are developed with entirely different code languages from the normal software Applications of the Web 2 technology. Smart contracts are written with highly self executing codes like:

• Solidity
• Vyper
• Yul and so on.

These are different from the code languages of general Software Development like Golang, PHP, Python, R, JavaScript and lots more.

Another difference will be that while Web 2 software Applications are mutable (pieces of codes can be changed in maintenance), Smart contracts are immutable (cannot be changed).

For this reason, development of a smart contracts, also known as its life cycle, goes through several phases. These ensure that the business requirements are correctly defined and secured by the technology, since it is impossible to change in maintenance. Some of those processes are:

• Defining the specific business conditions of the smart contract and communicate them to the developer.
• Designing the architecture of the contract to represent that logic. This serves as a blueprint during the development process.
• Writing the smart contract code for the blockchain platform of choice (e.g, Ethereum). This step also includes unit testing to determine if the contract performs as designed.
• An internal audit via a local blockchain and a testnet performed. The audit checks if the contract functions as intended, and meets all security standards.
• Finally, The contract is deployed on the marketplace on which it will operate.

Conclusively, general software development focuses on principles for developing software applications and maintaining them as they evolve in real-world environments. This is to enable such applications keep up with changing requirements and not become outdated over time. These Post-deployment maintenances eventually result in a new version of a software product or a patch that is released to replace or enhance the currently running version during scheduled downtimes.

However, in developing smart contracts on blockchain, All such changes that occur after the initial development time are impossible, as they are immutable from that point onward. To be changed, the entire written code must be taken down and rewritten afresh.