The early stages of blockchain development can be daunting. Smart contracts, the backbone of decentralised applications (dApps), demand meticulous coding and rigorous testing to ensure their security and efficiency. Furthermore, understanding how your dApp is performing in the real world, in terms of user adoption and token metrics, is crucial for its success.

Fortunately, there are a plethora of tools to smooth out some of the hassle for developers.

In this article, we will look into the best of them, categorized by purposes of debugging, testing, and user analysis.

Debugging Tools: Identify and Fix Smart Contract Issues With These Powerful Debuggers

Tenderly

Tenderly is a comprehensive platform that offers a powerful suite of tools for debugging, monitoring, and analyzing smart contracts and dApps. Its debugger empowers developers to step through transactions, inspect variables, and pinpoint errors with precision.

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Ethdbg

Ethdbg is an open-source command-line debugger specifically tailored for Ethereum smart contracts. Its interactive nature allows developers to delve deep into the execution of transactions on both local and remote Ethereum nodes.

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Sol-profiler

Sol-profiler is a Solidity code profiler that empowers developers to identify gas inefficiencies and performance bottlenecks within their smart contracts.

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Integration with development frameworks: Sol-profiler seamlessly integrates with popular Ethereum development frameworks like Hardhat and Truffle, making it easy to incorporate into existing workflows

Manticore

Manticore is a symbolic execution engine designed for Ethereum smart contracts. It automatically explores different execution paths within a contract, aiding in the discovery of bugs and vulnerabilities.

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Etherscan

Etherscan is a widely used blockchain explorer for the Ethereum network. While primarily known for its block and transaction exploration capabilities, Etherscan also offers built-in verification and debugging tools for smart contracts.

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Introducing aelfscan

Just as Etherscan provides a window into the Ethereum blockchain, aelfscan serves as the premier block explorer and analytics platform for the aelf blockchain. Dive deep into transaction details, track block information, and monitor smart contract activity, all within the aelf ecosystem.

aelf has since embraced AI to step up what its infrastructure can offer. Its multi-chain structure and ZK Roll-up layer 2 technology enable aelf to scale efficiently and effectively, and it expands potential use cases with its cross-chain interoperability.

Whether you're a developer building dApps or a user exploring the aelf ecosystem, aelf's advanced technology provides the tools and infrastructure to navigate the blockchain world with confidence.


Public Testnets: Stress-Test Your dApps in a Safe Environment

Ethereum-only Testnets

  1. Goerli

A popular and stable testnet known for its reliability and active community. It offers a realistic testing environment and provides easy access to testnet Ether through faucets.

  1. Sepolia

The most recent public testnet for Ethereum is designed to closely mirror the mainnet environment. Sepolia is ideal for testing dApps under conditions that closely resemble real-world usage.

Testnets for Other Chains

  1. Polygon Mumbai

Polygon is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that offers faster and cheaper transactions. The Mumbai testnet provides a cost-effective environment for testing dApps that require high throughput.

  1. Avalanche Fuji

Avalanche is a high-performance blockchain platform known for its near-instant finality. The Fuji testnet allows developers to experience Avalanche's speed and efficiency while testing their applications.

  1. Solana Devnet

Solana Devnet is the primary testing ground for Solana applications. It closely replicates the Solana mainnet, providing a realistic environment to test smart contracts and dApps before deploying them to the live network.

Analytics: Track dApp's Performance and User Behavior

DappRadar

DappRadar is a leading platform for tracking and analyzing dApps across multiple blockchains. It provides comprehensive insights into user activity, transaction volumes, and token metrics, enabling developers to understand how their dApps are performing in the market.

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Alchemy Monitor

Alchemy Monitor is a robust monitoring and alerting platform specifically designed for Ethereum applications. It provides real-time insights into smart contract activity, transaction status, and infrastructure health, empowering developers to proactively identify and resolve issues.

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Flipside Crypto

Flipside Crypto is a unique, community-driven platform that incentivizes users to contribute insights and analysis on various dApps. It fosters a collaborative environment where users can explore data, create dashboards, and share their findings, all while earning rewards.

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Tenderly

We've already mentioned Tenderly under the 'Debugging' section of the article. Within the Tenderly suite lies Tenderly Analytics, a powerful tool that provides in-depth insights into smart contract activity and user behavior.

It empowers developers to track key performance indicators (KPIs), identify bottlenecks, and optimize their dApps for enhanced user experience.

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In Closing

Be it an aspiring or an experienced developer, the tools explored in this article, spanning debugging, testing, and analytics, would be a boon for workflows and the quality of dApps. Tasks that are painstakingly manual can be done away with, freeing up time for serving the community with desirable applications.

Depending on what is being built, complexities in blockchain development still linger, and the journey of building successful dApps is continuous. The tools presented here are not exhaustive—we would urge you to explore them and beyond because what's better than a handy blockchain tool is a combination of them.

*Disclaimer: The information provided on this blog does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other form of professional advice. Aelf makes no guarantees or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information on this blog. You should not make any investment decisions based solely on the information provided on this blog. You should always consult with a qualified financial or legal advisor before making any investment decisions.

About aelf

aelf, an AI-enhanced Layer 1 blockchain network, leverages the robust C# programming language for efficiency and scalability across its sophisticated multi-layered architecture. Founded in 2017 with its global hub in Singapore, aelf is a pioneer in the industry, leading Asia in evolving blockchain with state-of-the-art AI integration and modular Layer 2 ZK Rollup technology, ensuring an efficient, low-cost, and highly secure platform that is both developer and end-user friendly. Aligned with its progressive vision, aelf is committed to fostering innovation within its ecosystem and advancing Web3 and AI technology adoption.

For more information about aelf, please refer to our Whitepaper V2.0.

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