A Complete Guide on Ethereum Frontend JavaScript APIs 

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• May 19, 2020

If you are looking for career opportunities in the blockchain domain and want to become a Certified Ethereum Expert, this article will provide a comprehensive guide on Ethereum and its frontend javascript APIs.

Learning Of Blog

•  Introduction to Ethereum
•  What is API?
•  Frontend Javascript APIs Explained
•  Conclusion

Introduction to Ethereum 

Ethereum, rather than running on a single computer, is an open-source software platform that runs on a network. The goal of Ethereum is to offer a decentralized trust-less platform to build decentralized applications (Dapps) that runs on Ethereum blockchain, and its execution is monitored by thousands of peers, who secure the blockchain.

Though Ethereum is criticized for its scalability, but for now, it is still the best platform for decentralized applications. Decentralized Finance(DeFi), health applications, security infrastructure, and privacy from third-parties are the major applications of Ethereum.

Seeing its advancements and scopes, it is clear that it is crucial to learn and become a certified Blockchain Developer that opens the doors for infinite career possibilities.

What is API?

Before we understand Ethereum APIs, let’s revise the definition of API.

Application Programming Interface(API) is a set of protocols for building and integrating application software. It simplifies app development as it enables your products and services to communicate with others without knowing how they are implemented, thus saving time and money. It is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk. It delivers your request to the provider and then provides the response back to you.

Frontend Javascript APIs Explained

Below is the list of frontend javascript APIs.

Web3.js

Web3.js a collection of libraries that allow users to perform required actions like sending Ether from one account to the other, read and write data from smart contracts, create smart contracts, and much more than that. Further, it allows developing clients that interact with the Etherem Blockchain. In short, we can say, this library is a collection of modules that contain specific functionality for the Ethereum ecosystem, allowing one to interact with a local or remote ethereum node, using either of the connection, HTTP, or IPC.

 

It interacts with Ethereum Blockchain with JSON RPC (Remote Procedure Call) protocol. As Ethereum is a peer-to-peer network of nodes that stores a copy of all the data and code on the blockchain, this API allows making requests to an individual Ethereum node with JSON RPC to read and write data to the network.

Ethers.js

It is a complete and compact general-purpose library that interacts with the Ethereum Blockchain and its ecosystem with the main features:

• It is an open-source platform.
• Keeps your private keys in your client, thus following a safe approach.
• It Import and export JSON wallets.
• Fully TypeScript ready, with definition files and full TypeScript source
• Complete functionality for all your Ethereum needs.

It is an alternative to Web3.js to build javascript frontend and interact with the Ethereum blockchain. This library is designed to make it simpler to write client-side JavaScript-based wallets, having the private key on the owner’s machine at all times.

New to Ethereum? Check out the best Ethereum Certifications and training courses here. 

Light.js

This API provides a set of high-level tools for building light-client-efficient Dapps, primarily aimed for Dapp developers who are looking for an alternative to web3.js.

But what if you can’t embed the light client in your application? Light.js works well with the remote full nodes, which makes it exceptional for all Dapps.

This library operates with the underlying goals.

• It picks the best pattern that works with light clients, listens to headers and makes API calls on a new header, making sure that the amount of network calls is not extreme.
• It put it into a high-level library so that Dapp developers use an easy API instead of following a well-known pattern.

Apart from APIs mentioned above, Web3-wrapper is another API that can be used as an alternative for developing Dapps.

Conclusion 

If you are a Dapp developer, then there are chances that you will be using any one of these libraries to design and develop decentralized applications. If you are new to developing Ethereum, Certified, Ethereum Expert online training imparts in-depth knowledge on Ethereum Blockchain and provides insights into the workings of Ethereum and the Smart Contracts. To build and deploy smart contracts on Ethereum based applications, you can refer to Certified Solidity Developer courses offered.

 

To learn more about Ethereum certifications and become an Ethereum expert, checkout Blockchain Council.