4 ms·

Ask HN: Is it worth learning Solidity in 2021?

22 points by nicdc 5y ago

I guess the answer will inevitably depend on how much potential for growth you see in ETH and/or smart contracts.

max_ 5y ago
Obviously not. A single contract call on Ethereum may cost you up to $120. Ethereum is no longer practical. Even so there are better smart contract languages like Vyper[0] & Scilla[1]. [0]:https://vyper.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ https://vyper.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ [1]:http://scilla-lang.org http://scilla-lang.org
- noofen 5y ago
  > Ethereum is no longer practical. Oh please, L2 solutions already exist, EIP-1559 in the upcoming months, and Proof of Stake is 1-2 years out.
  - anaganisk 5y ago
    > > Ethereum is no longer practical. > Oh please, L2 solutions already exist, EIP-1559 in the upcoming months, and Proof of Stake is 1-2 years out. Its just one elon musk tweet away for its price to go big bang.
    - schappim 5y ago
      Unfortunately, this is far too accurate.
  - max_ 5y ago
    Your talking about promises not "solutions" that can be used today. Proof of stake has been coming in 1 year for 4 years now. L2 Solutions simply don't work. Exchanges, that would benefit alot from L2 solutions have not implemented any because they know they suck from a security standpoint & other tradeoffs
RhodoGSA 5y ago
Smart contract Audits and creation is pretty lucrative, with payment for work generally in a currency that's not in a period of 'Transitory Inflation'. I've been learning rust/ substrate tho, ETH is a bit dated by now.
- rebelos 5y ago
  > payment for work generally in a currency that's not in a period of 'Transitory Inflation' And instead in a currency that's in a period of 'Transitory Panic Selloff'.
  - jpgvm 5y ago
    Fiat currencies are manipulated! -> Elon tweets -> Surprised pikachu face.
  - RhodoGSA 5y ago
    haha, touche. "Dad, how come we are poor" "Well you see son, when i was younger I traded all my real money for fake online tokens because i thought it'd make me a millionaire" In all fairness, if you didn't take some profit over the last 6 months the fault lies within.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  You can do any kind of work and once paid convert it to ETH so getting paid in it is no difference (I’d say it is more inconvenient as you need to convert some to fiat and then deal with taxes)
  - RhodoGSA 5y ago
    Well, most blockchains pay in their native token. Most of these companies are have $B's next to their market cap but are very cash poor.
- raizinho 5y ago
  Any advice for someone looking to get into the field?
dhruvkar 5y ago
I think smart contracts are here to stay. However, I'd instead check out Cardano's (ADA) Plutus platform [0]. It's a subset of Haskell as I understand it. They have a online playground to simulate contracts [1]. Cardano also has a ERC-20 converter [2], so expect a lot of projects to also move to Cardano (given the much lower fees and higher throughput) when smart contracts are released in August/September. 0. https://docs.cardano.org/projects/plutus/en/latest/plutus/explanations/index.html https://docs.cardano.org/projects/plutus/en/latest/plutus/ex... 1. https://playground.plutus.iohkdev.io/ https://playground.plutus.iohkdev.io/ 2. https://cointelegraph.com/news/cardano-erc-20-converter-nears-testnet-phase https://cointelegraph.com/news/cardano-erc-20-converter-near...
- fsociety 5y ago
  Cardano contracts won’t be released until August.. optimistically.
throwawaycodrrr 5y ago
Yes.
sidthekid 5y ago
This twitter thread should give an indication that developers are extremely in demand: https://twitter.com/sebaudet26/status/1394380919818051584 https://twitter.com/sebaudet26/status/1394380919818051584

22 points by nicdc 5y ago

I guess the answer will inevitably depend on how much potential for growth you see in ETH and/or smart contracts.

max_ 5y ago

Obviously not. A single contract call on Ethereum may cost you up to $120. Ethereum is no longer practical. Even so there are better smart contract languages like Vyper[0] & Scilla[1]. [0]:https://vyper.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ https://vyper.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ [1]:http://scilla-lang.org http://scilla-lang.org

noofen 5y ago
> Ethereum is no longer practical. Oh please, L2 solutions already exist, EIP-1559 in the upcoming months, and Proof of Stake is 1-2 years out.
- anaganisk 5y ago
  > > Ethereum is no longer practical. > Oh please, L2 solutions already exist, EIP-1559 in the upcoming months, and Proof of Stake is 1-2 years out. Its just one elon musk tweet away for its price to go big bang.
  - schappim 5y ago
    Unfortunately, this is far too accurate.
- max_ 5y ago
  Your talking about promises not "solutions" that can be used today. Proof of stake has been coming in 1 year for 4 years now. L2 Solutions simply don't work. Exchanges, that would benefit alot from L2 solutions have not implemented any because they know they suck from a security standpoint & other tradeoffs

RhodoGSA 5y ago

Smart contract Audits and creation is pretty lucrative, with payment for work generally in a currency that's not in a period of 'Transitory Inflation'. I've been learning rust/ substrate tho, ETH is a bit dated by now.

rebelos 5y ago
> payment for work generally in a currency that's not in a period of 'Transitory Inflation' And instead in a currency that's in a period of 'Transitory Panic Selloff'.
- jpgvm 5y ago
  Fiat currencies are manipulated! -> Elon tweets -> Surprised pikachu face.
- RhodoGSA 5y ago
  haha, touche. "Dad, how come we are poor" "Well you see son, when i was younger I traded all my real money for fake online tokens because i thought it'd make me a millionaire" In all fairness, if you didn't take some profit over the last 6 months the fault lies within.
quickthrower2 5y ago
You can do any kind of work and once paid convert it to ETH so getting paid in it is no difference (I’d say it is more inconvenient as you need to convert some to fiat and then deal with taxes)
- RhodoGSA 5y ago
  Well, most blockchains pay in their native token. Most of these companies are have $B's next to their market cap but are very cash poor.
raizinho 5y ago
Any advice for someone looking to get into the field?

dhruvkar 5y ago

I think smart contracts are here to stay. However, I'd instead check out Cardano's (ADA) Plutus platform [0]. It's a subset of Haskell as I understand it. They have a online playground to simulate contracts [1]. Cardano also has a ERC-20 converter [2], so expect a lot of projects to also move to Cardano (given the much lower fees and higher throughput) when smart contracts are released in August/September. 0. https://docs.cardano.org/projects/plutus/en/latest/plutus/explanations/index.html https://docs.cardano.org/projects/plutus/en/latest/plutus/ex... 1. https://playground.plutus.iohkdev.io/ https://playground.plutus.iohkdev.io/ 2. https://cointelegraph.com/news/cardano-erc-20-converter-nears-testnet-phase https://cointelegraph.com/news/cardano-erc-20-converter-near...

fsociety 5y ago
Cardano contracts won’t be released until August.. optimistically.

throwawaycodrrr 5y ago

Yes.

sidthekid 5y ago

This twitter thread should give an indication that developers are extremely in demand: https://twitter.com/sebaudet26/status/1394380919818051584 https://twitter.com/sebaudet26/status/1394380919818051584