Design Patterns in CosmWasm Smart Contract Development

[emperorjm]

Background:
There was a workshop at HackerWasm titled “CosmWasm Design Patterns and Best Practices” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKd2a3MP14), which provided valuable insights into how these general ideas can be applied to smart contract development.

Software engineering has long benefited from the application of design patterns, particularly within the domain of object oriented programming (OOP). By understanding and adapting these traditional design patterns, there's potential to achieve increased scalability, maintainability, and perhaps even enhanced security in the blockchain space. Given that CosmWasm smart contracts are primarily written in Rust, and considering Rust's inherent OOP capabilities, there's an opportunity to leverage the rich repository of existing design patterns and adapt them to the unique requirements of the blockchain.

For instance, the Singleton pattern, which is commonly used in OOP to ensure a single instance of a class, was employed in an older version of CosmWasm Storage (https://docs.rs/cosmwasm-storage/latest/cosmwasm_storage). So in the same way the Factory pattern help with simplifying and standardizing contract creation (CosmWasm Design Patterns and Best Practices, n.d.).

Questions:
Does the application of traditional OOP design patterns provide tangible benefits to the CosmWasm smart contract development process? Are there patterns that might inherently bolster or jeopardize the functionality, security, or efficiency of a contract? To provide another perspective: Will recognizing and integrating these patterns simplify the developer's journey, making the transition smoother for those venturing from conventional software development into blockchain?

By delving into these questions, we aim to build a shared understanding and perhaps even a repository of best practices. Your insights, experiences, and expertise can guide and shape this fusion of traditional patterns and modern blockchain demands.

So, let the discussion begin! Whether you're sharing a success story, a challenge, or pondering upon the feasibility of a pattern, your input will be the catalyst for growth and innovation in our community.

References

CosmWasm Design Patterns and Best Practices. (n.d.). Available at: https://bafybeibfsgvlewfgafjzofrcc4n3f3ej2bl5tbxlxh6e5flzroplyavhjy.ipfs.nftstorage.link/ [Accessed 12 Sep. 2023].