Key Takeaways
- Simplicity has been activated on Liquid testnet, marking a major milestone after seven years of development.
- Blockstream also introduces Simfony, a more developer-friendly language similar to Rust, abstracting complex Simplicity concepts.
- The team plans to release tools, documentation, and a web IDE to encourage early adoption of Simfony smart contracts.
Activation of Simplicity on Liquid Testnet
The Blockstream team has announced that Simplicity was activated on the Liquid testnet after seven years of development.
This marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Simplicity from a research-driven concept to a practical smart contracting language.
Simplicity was designed to offer more expressiveness and stronger safety assurances compared to Bitcoin Script and Ethereum's EVM.
Introducing Simfony: A Developer-Friendly Language
In the process of developing Simplicity, the Blockstream also created Simfony, a language that abstracts the complexity of Simplicity, making it more accessible for developers.
Simfony resembles Rust in its syntax and structure, but it maps directly down to Simplicity’s functional programming base.
Down the line, Blockstream is planning to implement an optimizing compiler that preserves Simplicity's formal verification capabilities.
Early Adoption and Hands-On Learning Opportunities
Blockstream encourages developers to explore Simfony through a web IDE that provides example programs and smart contract tools.
At the upcoming TABConf, a workshop will teach participants how to set up an Elements node on the Liquid testnet.
Developers are invited to test their skills by using Simfony’s library or low-level Rust and Haskell implementations of Simplicity.
