20 million JavaScript developers can now build applications at NEAR: KBW 2022

After rolling out the JavaScript Software Development Kit (JS SDK) on Monday, 20 million JavaScript developers will be able to write blockchain smart contracts and build applications on the Near Protocol.

Speaking to Cointelegraph at Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) on Tuesday, Near founder Ilya Poroskin emphasized that the move will open up the niche area of ​​blockchain development to a much broader audience. did.

“There are about 20 million JavaScript developers in the world. Like all developers, they have probably written some form of JavaScript. to create.”

“Before we introduced Solidity, we were using Rust for Ethereum and other layer 2. Solana and Near are primarily Rust. So Solidity probably has 100,000 developers, but Solidity Even fewer people are familiar with it, and possibly even fewer in Rust,” he added.

In Monday’s announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Near outlined that the JS SDK includes “the contract framework itself, examples and tests for JavaScript and TypeScript contracts.”

Polosukhin pointed out that the JS SDK can be used by anyone, from students looking to get their feet wet in blockchain to people in the commercial sector looking to accelerate their projects.

“Students can build apps without having to learn new skills, without having to learn a new language. [devs]actually builds teams stronger and faster, enabling them to deliver products faster,” he said, adding:

“Something like Near’s idea is to build a highly extensible and powerful system that allows developers to build everything from simple apps to very complex apps.”

Asked about whether the JS SDK would be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, given that Near is a competitor to Ethereum, Polosukhin said that while the product specifically runs on Near, similar to EVM: We mentioned that you can create EVM-compatible smart contracts from the SDK. Compatibility Scaling Aurora was created with Near.

Related: Korea Blockchain Week, August 8: First Day Points from the Cointelegraph Team

Near is a decentralized application (DApp) platform that launched in April 2020 and is designed for ease of use by developers and users. Its native token, Near Protocol (NEAR), is currently the 24th largest crypto asset by market cap at $4.1 billion.

According to CoinGecko, the asset is priced at $5.44 at the time of writing, up a whopping 42.8% over the past 30 days.