Stratis Unveils Alpha Release of C# Smart Contracts
Stratis has unveiled the alpha version of their C# Stratis Smart Contract, taking the company closer to its vision of being the business-friendly blockchain for smart contracts.
Aiming to make blockchain easier for enterprises, Stratis is built in C# on the .NET framework — permitting developers to build smart contracts in one of the world’s benchmark programming languages.
Stratis | Smart Contracts in C# alpha release https://t.co/pEshGZOTXZ via @YouTube
— Stratisplatform (@stratisplatform) May 16, 2018
According to Stratis, this will enable enterprise adoption of blockchain en masse, allowing the seamless integration of their product into existing architectures. Their announcement noted:
“This makes it easier to integrate into existing enterprise architectures than other platforms, Stratis Smart Contracts in C# opens many doors previously blocked due to computing language barriers.”
War of the Smart Contracts?
Ethereum has enjoyed a first-mover advantage in being the first blockchain to implement smart contracts, which demand its programming language, Solidity — since appropriated by a number of blockchains including QTUM, Rootstock, and UBIQ.
While Ethereum’s smart contract arguably popularized the notion of the technology — first conceptualized by Nick Szabo in 1994 — competitors have pointed to the young Solidity as being a barrier to entry for developers, who must learn an entirely new scripting language to write Ethereum smart contracts.
In the increasingly-crowded space of smart contract platforms, the criticism of Solidity seems to be a popular selling point. There’s Lisk, who use Javascript — describing it as “undeniably the language of the internet” or Stratis, who note:
“Several other blockchain companies have launched smart contracts offerings, but required development in an entirely different programming language or a new digital ecosystem with new languages, decompilers and integrated development environments (IDEs).”
In this vein, Stratis uses C# to market their platform as the developer-friendly solution for businesses. Chris Trew, Stratis CEO offered:
“Our foundation in C# and .NET programming broadens the world of smart contracts immediately, and we look forward to seeing what people do with it.”
While C# may indeed lower the barrier to entry for those foreign to Solidity, Stratis faces a number of competitors in the smart contract space, such as NEM, Lisk or EOS — all of whom tote their respective programming language as being the most agreeable.
This may explain why Stratis appears to be diversifying, offering a range of products alongside its C# smart contract — stating they will soon support F# — a functional programming language favored in the financial and scientific sectors.
Finally, early May 2018 saw the release of the Stratis ICO Platform — a fee-less ecosystem designed to streamline the process of launching an ICO.
As Stratis joins the heated race of smart contract providers, the response of the world’s significant C# development community may prove pivotal to the project’s adoption.