Summary
Blockchain technology, previously seen as complex and niche, is now gaining wider recognition and use across different sectors. It's increasingly evident that the majority of human interactions - spanning trade, finance, legal matters, environment, and entertainment - are set to have their foundations deeply embedded in blockchain technology. Despite skepticism and pushback against this revolutionary innovation, the unstoppable tide of progress will continue, compelling the world to adapt to the transformative possibilities unlocked by blockchain.
Modern blockchains promise to remedy the constraints of traditional systems. However, due to its unique design decisions, the Gear Protocol - hereinafter referred to simply as "Gear" - goes beyond providing a highly efficient platform for developing and running decentralized applications.
Employing the Actor model at its core, Gear harnesses the power of asynchronous messaging as well as parallel computing. Advanced memory management for programs, coupled with the use of WebAssembly (Wasm), underpins a highly efficient and feature-rich programming platform that operates at minimal cost and that enables applications to run at near-native speeds.
By implementing deferred messaging, developers can enable continuous automation of their fully on-chain and truly decentralized applications. Built-in-Actors enable programs on the blockchain to access and utilize the functionalities of pallets. Gas reservations, Gasless and signless transaction capabilities, and other features serve as important tools for developers who aim to make their applications as user-friendly as Web2, bringing the benefits of Web3.
In short, Gear offers significant advantages relative to other modern blockchains and Substrate-based platforms, namely:
- Enhanced security and resilience owing to the Actor model that governs communication between users and programs.
- Extended capabilities empower developers to create arbitrary logic programs of any complexity by facilitating parallel computing, self-executing programs, and other features that enable compelling usability for end-users.
- A persistent memory methodology that simplifies development and increases speed, scalability, and data durability for programs.
- Streamlined program development, thanks to a custom runtime and simple yet feature rich native library on Rust.
- Easier onboarding for developers thanks to an extensive set of programs and smart contract examples for a majority of modern use cases.
The term 'Gear Network', as referred to in this document, encompasses any network that employs the Gear Protocol for deployment, such as Gear’s first standalone L1 network: Vara Network.
Primarily, this document serves as a resource to explore the technology, architecture, and components that make up the Gear Protocol, to illuminate the challenges it resolves, and to understand what differentiates Gear from other smart contract platforms for dApp development.