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Software engineering - 16 Sep 2024

A look back at the Advancing Bitcoin Developer Conference 2024

From March 13 to 15, 2024, for the 5th edition, the Advancing Bitcoin Developer Conference was held in London. Stefano Paluello, DAML Blockchain developer at MARGO UK, led a workshop on “Why Rust? An introduction to Rust and why we should use it.”

Here’s a look back at the workshop and what you need to remember about Rust:

Rust, a strong niche but challenging programming language

Stefano’s workshop focused on the Rust programming language, providing an in-depth introduction and analysis of Rust, and teaching methods for applying Rust to Blockchain-based technologies.

Rust is becoming the standard de facto for cryptographic development, and the focus on safety and correctness removes a lot of risk and burden from the devs’ shoulders.” – Stefano Paluello

Rust is a modern, low-level, system, generic programming language. The focus on safety, security and correctness makes Rust one of the best candidates to handle sensitive and important development.

A popular programming language in Blockchain development</strong

Rust is becoming popular, especially in a particular niche of Blockchain development: the vast majority of the security protocols and advanced cryptographic primitives are developed using Rust.

Before, most of the development was in C/C++ and then in Go (for the same reasons as Rust, more reliable and less error-prone than C/C++). Now Rust is adding some values to the Go development (more low level, better memory management), plus Rust has been used a lot in the Cryptographic community.

The future of Rust in the Crypto currencies environment

According to Stefano, it’s difficult to predict the future of Rust in the cryptocurrency environment. What seems certain is that the use of Rust will become widespread.

“It’s a language of the present.” Almost all the new advanced cryptographic primitives, FHE, ZKP, … are in Rust or in languages based on Rust (Cairo, Noir, …). The search for reliable, fast and secure code pushes many towards Rust.

The Advancing Bitcoin Developer Conference</strong

The Advancing Bitcoin Developer Conference is a must-attend event bringing together seasoned Bitcoin developers to share their knowledge through 25-minute talks and panel discussions. The event offers a unique platform to explore the latest advances in Bitcoin development, while fostering the exchange of ideas and professional encounters. This year’s event took place from March 13 to 15 and, for the first time, hosted the inaugural LDK (Lightning Dev Kit) hackathon.

Many thanks and congratulations to Stefano for his contribution to the conference! If you’d like to learn more about Rust and attend MARGO’s workshops, don’t hesitate to take a look at our job offers!