Solidity and Vyper are the two most popular programming languages for blockchain developers on Ethereum. Both of these languages have their own strengths and weaknesses which we will go through to help developers decide which is best suited for their project.
Solidity
Solidity is the most widely used programming language for developing smart contracts on Ethereum. It is a statically typed, contract-oriented, high-level language with a syntax similar to that of JavaScript.
Advantages of Solidity
Solidity has a large and active community of developers, which means that there are many resources available for learning and problem-solving. There are also many libraries and frameworks available that can be used to develop smart contracts quickly and efficiently.
Solidity is the most popular smart contract language on Ethereum, which means that it has been extensively tested and used in many different projects and there’s plenty of example code out there to use for inspiration.
Solidity has a syntax similar to that of JavaScript, which means that web developers who are familiar with JavaScript can more easily learn Solidity. This makes it a more accessible language for new developers who are just starting out with smart contract development.
Disadvantages of Solidity
Solidity has been the subject of several high-profile security breaches in the past, which have led to the loss of millions of dollars worth of Ether. This is partly due to the fact that Solidity is a Turing-complete language, which means that it can be used to write complex programs that are difficult to analyze and debug.
Although Solidity has a syntax similar to that of JavaScript, it can be more difficult to read and write due to its contract-oriented structure. This can make it harder for developers to write clean code which is readable and intuitive.
Vyper
Vyper is based on Python syntax and is well suited to developers coming from data science, quants and AI backgrounds.
The language is simple and maximally human-readable, making it difficult to write misleading code. Vyper features bounds and overflow checking, strong typing, support for signed integers and decimal fixed point numbers, and decidability. It does not include certain features like modifiers, class inheritance, inline assembly, function overloading, operator overloading, recursive calling, or infinite-length loops, as they can make code more complex and harder to audit. Vyper is not intended to be a 100% replacement for Solidity and will deliberately forbid or make certain things harder if it increases security.
Advantages of Vyper
Vyper was designed with security in mind and has several features that make it less prone to vulnerabilities than Solidity. For example, Vyper does not allow for infinite loops or unbounded iteration, which can be used to launch denial-of-service attacks.
Vyper has a simpler syntax than Solidity, which can make it easier to read and write. This can also make it easier for developers to write clean and efficient code.
Vyper contracts are often more gas-efficient than Solidity contracts, as Vyper does not allow for some of the more complex operations that Solidity does. This means that Vyper contracts can be deployed and executed more cheaply on the Ethereum network due to the lower level programming focus.
Disadvantages of Vyper
Vyper is far less adopted than Solidity which means that it has a smaller community of developers. This can make it more difficult to find resources and support for Vyper development. If your development process generally revolves around copy and pasting from stackoverflow then this may not be for you 🙄
Vyper does not have some of the newer features available in Solidity, which can be frustrating for developers who are familiar with Solidity but looking to move across.
Vyper has less infrastructure in place in terms of development tools and applications. Most platforms for web3 developers are built as Solidity first with Vyper perhasp added and supported~ish as an afterthought.
Example Solidity & Vyper Code
Here is a simple contract in Solidity that adds two numbers together:
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
contract Adder {
function add(uint256 a, uint256 b) public pure returns (uint256) {
return a + b;
}
}This is the same contract in Vyper:
contract Adder:
def add(a: uint256, b: uint256) -> uint256:
return a + bThis overly simplified code shows how clean Vyper code can be when compared to the equivalent in Solidity.
Vyper vs Solidity | Which, When & Why?
Both Solidity and Vyper have their own advantages and disadvantages, and choosing between them ultimately depends on the specific needs of the project and the experience of the dev team.
As a default I would recommend using Solidity first as it’s more widely used and supported across the Ethereum ecosystem. You’ll have an easier time finding devs, auditors and tools when working with Solidity. If you have a specific use case which perhaps relies on 3rd party applications written in Vyper or you are more familiar with Python and hate JS then there’s a growing case to use Vyper for production contracts.
The blockchain developer community is constantly evolving, and new smart contract languages and tools are being developed all the time. As such, it is important for developers to stay up to date on the latest developments in the Ethereum ecosystem and to be open to using new tools and languages as they become available.
