Rust Fundamentals for Blockchain Developers

Welcome to this Rust blockchain development course. This series will guide you through the essentials of the Rust programming language, building the strong foundation necessary for development on high-performance chains like Solana, Starknet, Arbitrumand Polkadot. You will learn about memory safety, concurrency, and the type system.

Module 1: Introduction to Rust

Introduction to Rust and its unique value proposition for blockchain development.

Key concepts include:

  • Memory Safety (without garbage collection)
  • Zero Cost Abstractions
  • Immutability by Default
  • Shadowing
  • Basic Types (Integers, Floats, Booleans, Chars)
  • Compound Types (Tuples, Arrays)

Module 2: Ownership & References

In this session, we dig into the language features that make Rust unique. Understanding these core concepts is crucial for writing safe and efficient Rust code.

Key concepts include:

  • Ownership: Rust's unique approach to memory management.
  • Borrowing: Accessing data without taking ownership.
  • Slices: Efficient views into collections of data.

Module 3: Types & Traits

In this session, we explore the type system and build complex data structures. We look at how to define usage behavior with Traits and handle nulls safely with Options.

Key concepts include:

  • Structs: Building complex data structures.
  • Enums & Matching: Control flow and data modelling.
  • Impl Blocks: Attaching methods to your types.
  • Option Enum: Safe handling of "null" values.
  • Traits: Defining shared behavior.
  • Macros: Code generation to reduce boilerplate.

Module 4: Functional Rust & Error Handling

In this session, we review data processing with functional programming patterns. We explore how to handle errors cleanly, define anonymous functions with closures, and utilize powerful collections.

Key concepts include:

  • Error Handling: Managing Results and propagating errors.
  • Collections: Vectors (Lists) and HashMaps (Key-Value stores).
  • Closures: Anonymous functions for flexible behavior.
  • Iterators: Processing sequences with map, collect, and more.

Module 5: From Solidity to Rust

In this final session, we guide you through the mental model shift required to move from Solidity to Rust. We compare EVM concepts with their Rust counterparts, focusing on storage, access control, and execution flow.

Key concepts include:

  • Mental Model Shift: Moving from synchronous EVM to parallel processing types.
  • Storage Patterns: Using HashMaps to replicate Solidity Mappings.
  • Access Control: Implementing modifiers for security.
  • Interfaces: Using Traits to define flexible behavior.
  • Testing: Writing structured tests in Rust.
  • Execution Control: Understanding Panics vs Reverts.

Resources

Rust Ecosystem

Community & Support