How to access Ethereum-based applications? | Hacker News Reader

How to access Ethereum-based applications?

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44 pointsbleumi13 comments

That's a pretty bad answer considering metamask instability. Having done a simple project on ethereum, metamask was major pain, and I would like to skip it next time.

Can you tell us more about the trouble you ran into with Metamask?

One of our use cases used factory pattern when creating contract instances. You'd get contract address by subscribing to event from the blockchain. Issue I ran into was that metamask would not get events from the blockchain even though it should. There we're a lot of issues with the feature, some resolved, some still not. Basically this issue: https://github.com/MetaMask/metamask-extension/issues/2393

Haha... Just an example: actually last release of Web3 (1.0.x) is not supported by metamask.

Python:

    from web3 import Web3, HTTPProvider
    
    web3 = Web3(HTTPProvider('http://localhost:8545')) #Assuming you're running your own ETH node
    your_eth_wallet_address = web3.eth.accounts[0] #Assuming you want to use your node's first wallet
    web3.eth.defaultAccount = your_eth_wallet_address

    dapp_contract = web3.eth.contract(contract_address)

    #Read data from the dapp or execute a function locally (No transaction cost):
    dapp_contract.call().function_name(*function_arguments)

    #Send an ETH transaction (Pay for gas, plus whatever this transaction does):
    dapp_contract.transact().function_name(*function_arguments)

The UX for interacting with Ethereum apps is slowly improving. The most interesting work going on in this space has to to with getting web3 available on mobile devices which is starting to make dApps useful on the go. This might lead to many more micropayment apps being developed. Best practices right now are centered around using your phone to scan QR codes to quickly add payment addresses.

Additionally, all these web3 providers who are developing browser based solutions are trying to provide a psuedo app store to make their platforms more useful.

Some examples I've been playing with lately are:

https://status.im/

https://www.cipherbrowser.com/

https://www.omise.co/go

A competitor in this space is blockstack who is pushing the dApp model hard: https://blockstack.org

Browsers now have the native Web Crypto API which makes doing fully P2P end to end encrypted decentralized applications possible.

For instance, here is a demo of a social network dApp I built that is running a distributed correctness test across many real world devices that are updating character-by-character in realtime: https://youtu.be/C3akdQJs55E (fully P2P and encrypted!)

I know blockstack has been pushing this but they still require their own browser. Meanwhile you can build apps like above as easily as 40 lines of code and a few minutes, check out this interactive coding tutorial: https://scrimba.com/c/c2gBgt4

You're still relying on the central app-specific server for connecting peers to each other, it's disingenuous to say it's "fully p2p".

False, it is fully peer to peer. The browser, even with WebRTC, can't do full P2P, but that isn't gun's fault, because if you run a NodeJS peer it can and will be fully P2P. And you can you mix these together.

You're right that it's not gun's fault you can't do direct p2p in a browser, I guess my point is that this is one reason why people keep making browser forks and plugins

Ahhh, thanks for clarifying. Good point. Yes, that is true, but my concern is if we tie the dApp to strongly to these forks or plugins we also can only grow the user base as fast as users who are willing to install and use these alternatives - which I believe just shoots our own growth in the foot.

Instead, if we make it work out of the browser by default, then we can get much better user adoption and then optionally ask users to opt into more secure and reliable alternatives after they have already built trust with us and been won over. Does that make sense? Thoughts?

How was your experience with status ? (I'm a status dev)

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