Substrate Technology

Open

Substrate primitives are Apache 2.0 licensed, but developers know that open-source licensing isn't enough on its own. They need customizable architecture, tooling to support their development, and most importantly, an open and contributing community.

Architecture

Substrate uses familiar open protocols such as libp2p and jsonRPC while letting the developer decide how much they want to customize their architecture. If a developer desires full customization, they can use Substrate Core to design and implement the runtime from scratch in any language that can target WebAssembly.

Substrate FRAME is a meet-in-the-middle approach that allows for a lot of freedom and configuration without requiring extensive customization. A key benefit of FRAME is the option to select from a growing library of pallets or custom-build their own.

Explore the components of a Substrate-based blockchain node »

Tooling

Great tooling enables faster development, deployment, and debugging. Not only does Substrate have comprehensive, high quality tooling, it also enables developers to use tooling developed by others, since everything is based on the same underlying framework. This means there's no need to reinvent the wheel with tooling.

Tools for obtaining and analyzing data are critical, and Substrate was built with this in mind. Substrate exposes rich telemetry data that can be accessed in a performant, horizontally scalable and resilient way. This data is compatible with various tools designed to analyze and visualize the data.

End-user tooling improves the experience of interacting with Substrate blockchain networks. Substrate is the only blockchain framework with an ultra-light client for connecting to the blockchain network directly in the browser without relying on third parties or running additional node infrastructure. Other end-user tooling includes utilities for sharding keys, faucets, wallets, and more.

Visit the tools list maintained by the Awesome Substrate community »

Community

Substrate has a large, active, and extremely helpful builder community. Many of the pallets have been created by the community itself. This means developers will not only continually have more capabilities to add to their blockchain network, it also means they can take advantage of blockchain runtime modules and further innovations that have been tried and tested within the ecosytem.

Explore the various ways to get involved with the community »

The combination of an open-source, customizable architecture, rich tooling and a robust active community makes Substrate the most open technology for building blockchain networks.

Learn more about what makes Substrate's technology unique:

Flexible

Substrate's flexibility alleviates the tension of tradeoffs by enabling developers to create the optimal blockchain for their specific needs.

Interoperable

Interoperability without foregoing compatibility, security, or efficiency; learn how Substrate takes a unique, multifaceted approach to address each of these factors.

Future-Proof

Substrate enables developers to change their architecture as their needs evolve, ensuring that their blockchain network is ready for whatever the future brings.

Developer Hub

Dive into documentation, tutorials, and resources to immediately get started building with Substrate

Start building

Vision

Substrate is the backbone of the Polkadot ecosystem, building the decentralized and fair internet of the future

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Ecosystem

Access resources, maximize opportunities, and connect with a thriving network of Substrate enthusiasts and builders

Check out the ecosystem