Quick Summary: Key Points in Blockchain Development VM Customization Environment Tips & Tricks
- Customizing virtual machine configurations can enhance blockchain development efficiency by up to 40% through optimized resource allocation
- SSD storage solutions offer 10-20x faster compilation times compared to traditional HDDs when building complex smart contracts
- Docker-based environments with pre-configured blockchain toolchains eliminate 90% of common setup issues faced by new developers
- Properly configured VM snapshots can save hours of recovery time when testing risky contract deployments or network upgrades
- Tatum provides comprehensive blockchain development tools that integrate seamlessly with custom VM environments for enterprise-grade solutions
The right virtual machine setup can make the difference between a smooth development experience and constant frustration when building blockchain applications. Whether you’re working with Ethereum, Solana, or any other blockchain platform, your development environment needs to be precisely tailored to handle the unique demands of blockchain technology. This guide will walk you through essential optimizations that professional blockchain developers use to supercharge their workflow.
The Importance of a Properly Configured VM for Blockchain Development
Developing blockchain applications is a resource-intensive process. It’s not like traditional software development. If you’re compiling intricate smart contracts, running local test networks, or simulating high transaction throughput, a VM that isn’t set up correctly will slow down to a crawl. I’ve seen projects get delayed by weeks because the developers thought they could get away with a basic environment setup.
Running local blockchain nodes, particularly when testing with thousands of transactions or complex smart contract interactions, can strain even the most powerful machines. A custom-tuned VM ensures that you can simulate mainnet conditions without waiting minutes between operations. By using Tatum’s blockchain infrastructure services, you can extend your local development capabilities even further by connecting to production-ready testing environments that integrate seamlessly with your customized VM.
Crucial VM Settings That Enhance Blockchain Development
Enhancing your VM begins with comprehending the unique needs of blockchain development. Unlike web development, which might be more CPU-intensive, blockchain development frequently necessitates a balanced strategy with a particular emphasis on memory allocation and I/O performance. Let’s go over the essential settings that yield the most substantial performance gains.
Finding the Perfect Balance in RAM Allocation
One of the most important things to consider in your blockchain development VM is how much memory to allocate. Just running a local Ethereum node can take up 4-8GB of RAM, and that’s before you even consider the memory requirements of development tools, IDEs, and other services. If you’re doing any serious development work, you should allocate at least 16GB of RAM to your VM. If you’re working on a particularly complex project that involves multiple networks or nodes, you might want to go up to 32GB.
For memory-heavy networks such as Ethereum, it’s important to properly adjust your swap space. A general guideline is to make your swap equivalent to your RAM allocation for VMs that have 16GB or less, and half your RAM for larger setups. This helps avoid crashes due to lack of memory during heavy-duty tasks like testing the deployment of contracts on a large scale.
How Many CPU Cores Do You Really Need?
When it comes to allocating CPU for blockchain development, you need to find a balance between compilation speed and network simulation capacity. In most cases, assigning 4 cores is a good compromise. It allows for parallel compilation and leaves enough resources for your local blockchain node. If you’re doing protocol-level development or need to simulate high-throughput networks like Solana, you might want to increase this to 6-8 cores.
Both the type and number of CPU cores are important. Blockchain development tends to benefit more from fewer high-performance cores than from many slower ones. If you must make a choice when setting up your VM, prioritize core performance over the number of cores. This will significantly improve the compilation speeds for complex contracts.
Choosing Between SSD and HDD: How It Affects Performance
There’s no quicker way to slow down your blockchain development environment than by not having enough storage. Local blockchain nodes are always reading and writing to the disk as they process transactions and maintain state. If you use an HDD instead of an SSD, you could be looking at build times that are 10-20x longer and very slow local node operation. Make sure to set up your VM with SSD storage and give it at least 100GB if you’re doing serious development work.
For projects that take a long time, think about using a tiered storage strategy. Configure a fast SSD for directories for active development, node data, and build artifacts. Use a larger HDD or network storage for archives, documentation, and resources that aren’t accessed as often. This optimization provides performance where it’s needed the most without the need for a lot of premium storage.
When I switched from a standard VM setup to an optimized configuration with NVMe storage and proper RAM allocation, my Ethereum contract compilation times dropped from 45 seconds to under 4 seconds. The productivity difference was night and day.
— Bernard Hashimoto, Blockchain Architect
Network Settings for Optimal Node Communication
Network configuration is often overlooked but critically important for blockchain development VMs. Default VM network settings frequently use network address translation (NAT), which can create connectivity issues when running nodes that need to communicate with each other or external services. Configure your VM to use bridged networking when possible, allowing direct communication between your development environment and other services on your network.
If you are working on a project that involves numerous blockchains or microservices, you might want to think about establishing a private virtual network between VMs. This strategy enhances security and ensures that the high-speed communication channels necessary for intricate blockchain transactions are preserved. It’s important to remember to set up your VM’s firewall to only allow the specific ports needed for your development work, particularly if your VM can be accessed outside your local network.
Key Tools for Your Blockchain VM
It’s not just about setting up the right hardware resources in your VM, but also making sure you have the right tools. Having a well-equipped blockchain development environment can save you many hours of troubleshooting and ensure that you are compatible with different blockchain platforms. The key is to create a consistent, reproducible environment that works reliably across your entire development lifecycle.
Essential Text Editors and IDE Extensions
Although you can use any text editor to develop blockchain applications, using IDEs and extensions specifically designed for this purpose can greatly increase your productivity. Visual Studio Code is the text editor of choice for many blockchain developers. It offers extensions like Solidity Visual Developer for Ethereum, Truffle for Ethereum, and Substrate for Polkadot. These extensions provide syntax highlighting, code completion, and inline compilation error feedback, helping you catch bugs before they reach the testnet and cause problems.
When it comes to professional development, it’s a good idea to set up your editor to use a consistent linting and formatting setup. You can use tools like Solhint for Solidity or ESLint for JavaScript to make sure your code is up to standard and to avoid common security pitfalls. You can install these extensions during the VM setup process and then sync the settings across your team. This will help you maintain consistency in your code no matter who’s working on the project.
Setting Up Version Control That Doesn’t Slow You Down
When setting up Git within your VM for blockchain development, you need to pay special attention. Large binary files such as node modules and compiled contracts can quickly make repositories bloated and slow down operations. Make sure to set up a comprehensive .gitignore file from the start, excluding build artifacts, node modules, and environment-specific files that don’t need to be shared. For more insights, check out this article on blockchain development environment.
For managing blockchain-specific binary assets that need version control, you should set up Git LFS (Large File Storage). This could include reference databases, test transaction data, or deployment artifacts. If you have a well-configured Git setup with the right branch protection rules and commit hooks, you can avoid common mistakes like accidentally committing private keys or environment variables to your repositories.
Local Blockchain Networks: Ganache, Hardhat, and Beyond
The core of any blockchain development VM is its ability to run local blockchain networks. Tools like Ganache for Ethereum, LocalTerra for Terra, or Minima for Bitcoin create sandbox environments where you can deploy and test without incurring real-world gas fees or waiting for block confirmations. These local networks should be configured to mirror your target production environment as closely as possible.
Hardhat has quickly become the go-to for Ethereum development, providing a solid JavaScript-based testing framework and the ability to simulate networks. Set up your VM with both Hardhat and Ganache to cover all your bases – Ganache for exploring with a GUI and simple testing, and Hardhat for running automated test suites and more complicated deployment scenarios. Make sure to create handy aliases or scripts in your VM’s shell configuration to easily start and stop these networks with settings you’ve predefined. For more insights on virtualized infrastructure, explore various disaster recovery solutions and strategies.
Development Environments Based on Docker
Blockchain development has been transformed by Docker containers, which offer consistent, isolated environments that prevent the “works on my machine” issue. If properly set up, a Docker-based system can cut the time it takes to onboard new developers from days to hours, while also ensuring that everyone on your team has the same development environment.
Pre-made Images That Save You Hours of Setup Time
Using pre-made Docker images for blockchain development gets rid of dependency issues and version conflicts. Official images from the Ethereum, Hyperledger, or Polkadot teams provide ready-to-go environments with all the necessary tools pre-installed and set up. You can add your project-specific requirements to these base images to create a standard development environment that anyone can get running in just a few minutes.
Make a custom Dockerfile that adds your development tools to the official images. This should include debugging tools, monitoring utilities, and testing frameworks. Keep these Dockerfiles in your project repository. This way, new team members can make identical environments no matter what operating system they use.
Using Multi-Container Architecture for Complex Blockchain Projects
When you’re working on a complex blockchain project, you’re going to have a lot of different components to manage. You’ll have the blockchain nodes themselves, off-chain oracles, front-end applications, and databases. Docker Compose is a great tool for managing all of these different components within your development VM. You can create a docker-compose.yml file that defines your entire application stack. This means that developers can launch the complete environment with just one command.
When you’re creating your container architecture, make sure it aligns with your production deployment strategy. If you’re using separate containers for your smart contract backend and application frontend in your production system, you should do the same in development. This will help you find integration problems earlier and make sure your local testing environment is a true reflection of real-world deployment conditions.
Using Volume Mapping for Quick Code Changes
Volume mapping is a Docker feature that is incredibly useful for blockchain development. This feature allows your container to access files from your host VM. By configuring your Docker containers to mount your source code directory as a volume, you can make changes in your editor and have them instantly reflected inside the container without having to rebuild. This is especially useful when developing and testing smart contracts, as this often involves making small changes and testing frequently.
Think carefully about which directories you mount as volumes. It’s usually a good idea to mount source code directories to allow for live code reloading. However, you may want to keep node modules and build artifacts inside the container to avoid any compatibility issues between your host and container environments. Some teams like to use a mix of both, mounting source directories but using build processes specific to the container to make sure compilation is consistent.
Setting Up Network Communication Among Containers
You can use Docker’s networking features to set up a separate network for each part of your blockchain development stack. This can be done by defining custom networks in your Docker Compose configuration. For example, you might want to create a network for your blockchain nodes, another for your backend services, and a third for your frontend applications. This setup will give you the same kind of network isolation that you would have in a production environment.
Set up service discovery between containers using Docker’s built-in DNS resolution. This will allow your containers to reference each other by service name instead of IP address, which will make your configuration more portable and resilient to changes. If your blockchain applications need to communicate with external services, you might want to use Docker’s port mapping to expose only the necessary ports to your host VM. For more insights on VM configurations, you can check out AWS Solutions Architect practices.
I used to spend the first day of each project just setting up development environments for new team members. After switching to a Docker-based workflow with custom blockchain development images, new developers are productive within the first hour. It’s completely transformed our onboarding process.
— Juan D., Lead Blockchain Engineer
When using Docker for blockchain development, performance considerations become critical. Configure your Docker daemon with appropriate resource limits to ensure containers have access to the CPU and memory they need without starving your host VM. For resource-intensive operations like running full Ethereum nodes, consider using the host network mode to eliminate the networking overhead of Docker’s bridge networks.
VM Snapshots: Your Blockchain Development Lifeline
VM snapshots are like an insurance policy for your blockchain development. In traditional development, a broken environment can often be fixed quickly, but blockchain environments have complex interdependencies that can take hours to reconfigure if something goes wrong. By implementing a strategic snapshot policy, you can roll back to a known-working state in minutes instead of starting over from scratch. For more insights on setting up your blockchain environment, check out this blockchain development guide.
It’s important to be able to take risks in blockchain development, especially when you’re dealing with new protocols or pushing the limits of security. Snapshots give you the freedom to do this by backing up the entire system state before you do anything that could potentially be harmful. If you’re testing a contract deployment or network upgrade that could be risky, taking a quick snapshot allows you to try different things without having to rebuild your environment every time. For more insights, you can explore how to build your blockchain development environment effectively.
Best Time to Make Recovery Points
Creating snapshots at the right times in your development process can save you a lot of storage space while also providing the most value. Always take a snapshot right after you’ve set up your base environment with all of the necessary tools and dependencies. This snapshot, which we’ll call a “clean slate”, is a great backup plan in case something goes wrong with your environment while you’re developing.
When you are about to reach a big goal in your project or when you are making important changes to the structure of your project, make sure to take snapshots that are easy to understand and that show what your environment looks like when it is working well. These snapshots of your milestones will be a good way for you to go back to something that you know works if the new things you try do not work out. If you are working with a team, keep a shared place where you can all access the configurations of the snapshots. This way, you can make sure that everyone is testing things in the same way.
Handling Several Project Settings
If you are a developer juggling various blockchain projects or protocols, snapshots are a great way to keep separate environments without having to duplicate VMs. Rather than creating individual VMs for each project, you can use branching snapshots to keep different configurations that you can easily switch between. This method not only saves storage space but also guarantees that each project has its own unique development environment.
If you are working on multiple blockchain networks at the same time (such as creating applications that connect Ethereum and Solana), you should set up each snapshot to keep the full state of all relevant networks. Keep a record of the specific versions of tools, compilers, and dependencies included in each snapshot to make sure it can be reproduced. Some teams keep a snapshot registry that links specific snapshots to project versions, which makes it simple to recreate the exact environment used for any previous release.
Developing Across Different Platforms
It’s common for blockchain teams to have developers who use Windows, Mac, and Linux for their work. This makes it crucial to have a consistent VM configuration for everyone to work together effectively. If the development environments aren’t consistent, you’ll end up wasting time debugging issues that are specific to each platform instead of focusing on the actual application problems. A good strategy for developing across different platforms gets rid of these inconsistencies by standardizing the development environment, no matter what the host operating system is.
Keeping a Uniform Experience on Windows, Mac, and Linux
By virtualizing your blockchain development environment, you can have a uniform experience no matter what host operating system you are using. Tools such as VirtualBox can be used on all major platforms and can run identical VM images, guaranteeing that developers on Windows, Mac, and Linux are all working in the same environment. This method removes platform-specific bugs that frequently cause problems in blockchain projects, where minor environment differences can lead to major issues.
To ensure the highest level of consistency, it’s best to create a master VM image that contains all the necessary tools and configurations. This image should be updated on a regular basis with any changes that are needed and then distributed to all team members. If you’re working with a larger team, you might want to consider setting up a centralized VM management system. This system can push updates to all development environments at the same time, which ensures that everyone is working with the same tools and dependencies.
Configuration Files That Work Every Time
Configuration files are the bread and butter of a reliable blockchain development environment. Keep all essential configuration in version-controlled repositories instead of depending on local settings. This includes network configurations, compiler settings, test parameters, and deployment scripts. By storing these configurations in shared repositories, you make sure all team members work with the same settings no matter what their host platform is.
When you have values that need to vary between developers, like private keys, API endpoints, or local filesystem paths, use environment variables. This way, shared configuration files can adapt to individual environments without needing to be changed. If you have a complex environment configuration, you might want to look into tools like dotenv-flow that can manage multiple environment configurations within one project.
Optimizing Your Blockchain VM’s Performance
Even if you’ve set up your VM correctly, its performance can still worsen over time. This is particularly true for blockchain applications, which often generate a lot of state data. Regular performance tuning helps you keep up your development speed and avoid the annoying slowdowns that can happen in long-term projects. If you have a systematic way to monitor and optimize performance, your environment will stay responsive throughout the development process.
Finding and Avoiding Memory Leaks
Memory leaks can be a real pain in blockchain development environments, especially when applications are running for long periods during testing. You can use tools such as Valgrind for C/C++ blockchain applications or heapdump analysis for JavaScript applications to find memory leaks before they start to affect performance. You should also set up automated memory usage monitoring to let you know when applications go over the memory consumption patterns you expect.
If you’re working on blockchain nodes that are going to be running for a while, it’s a good idea to set up a regular restart schedule during development to get rid of any memory problems that have built up. This wouldn’t be a good solution for a production environment, but it can be a useful stopgap measure during development. Some teams set their VM to automatically restart certain services every night, so they start each day with a fresh memory state.
Making the Most of Garbage Collection
Most blockchain development frameworks are built on languages like JavaScript or Java that have automatic garbage collection. You can boost performance by adjusting the garbage collection parameters. For Node.js applications, you can configure the –max-old-space-size flag to allocate the right amount of memory based on your VM resources. This will help you avoid running out of memory during intensive operations like contract compilation or large-scale testing.
If you’re working in a Java-based blockchain environment like Hyperledger Fabric, you can tweak the settings of your Java Virtual Machine (JVM) heap to find a balance between memory usage and how often garbage collection occurs. If your heap space is too small, you’ll find that garbage collection happens too often and slows down your development. On the other hand, if you allocate too much heap space, you might experience long pauses during garbage collection cycles. Keep an eye on your garbage collection statistics as you go about your typical development tasks to help you figure out the best settings for your specific projects.
Using Benchmarking Tools to Find Bottlenecks
Performing regular benchmarking can help you catch performance degradation before it becomes a major problem. You should include simple benchmark scripts that can measure common operations like contract compilation, test execution, and network synchronization times. Run these benchmarks any time you make a significant change to the environment to catch performance regressions early.
When it comes to performance analysis specifically for blockchain, tools such as eth-gas-reporter for Ethereum projects offer in-depth understanding of contract execution costs and performance features. Incorporate these tools into your testing workflow to consistently keep an eye on the performance implications of your code modifications. Some teams keep dashboards that monitor performance metrics over time, which makes it simple to spot when changes lead to unforeseen performance impacts.
Boosting Security for Development VMs
When it comes to blockchain development, security is a top priority, even in segregated development environments. If a development VM is compromised, it can lead to the leaking of private keys, the theft of funds, or the compromising of deployment pipelines. By implementing security best practices from the start, you can form habits that will carry over into production deployment. This will protect not only development resources but also eventual end users.
Keeping Your Private Keys Secure in Your VM
You should never keep your actual mainnet private keys in your development VM, not even for testing. You should always keep your development keys and production keys separate, using different key generation processes for each environment. For development and testing, you should generate deterministic keys that can be recreated from a seed phrase. This allows everyone on the team to work with the same test accounts without having to share sensitive key material. For more insights on setting up a secure environment, check out this blockchain development environment guide.
If your development workflow needs access to private keys, don’t store them in plain text files. Instead, save them in encrypted keystores that are secured by strong passwords. You can integrate secure key management capabilities into your development workflow by using tools like eth-lightwallet or web3-hdwallet. Some teams create a separate secure VM just for key management operations. This way, they can keep signing capabilities separate from the general development environment.
Here are some tips and tricks for blockchain development VM customization:
- Instead of using configuration files, store temporary keys in environment variables
- Use vault solutions like HashiCorp Vault for managing keys as a team
- Set up automatic timeout policies to remove keys from memory when they’re not being used
- Never upload private keys to version control, even if they’re just for testing accounts
- If your development team is working with a significant amount of value, think about using hardware security modules
Keep in mind that the security habits you develop will likely be used in production as well. If you manage your keys properly in your development VM, you’ll be establishing patterns that will protect your assets when the stakes are higher. Many security incidents in blockchain have come from development practices that accidentally exposed sensitive information.
Protecting RPC Endpoints
RPC endpoints are a popular target for attacks on blockchain applications. Even when you’re just developing, it’s crucial to secure your RPC configurations to avoid any unauthorized access. Set up your development blockchain nodes so they only accept connections from localhost, unless you specifically need to test external connectivity.
If your development process requires you to expose RPC endpoints beyond your VM, you should implement the correct authentication and access controls. JSON-RPC Fortified is a tool that provides additional security layers for Ethereum RPC endpoints, allowing you to implement API keys and request filtering. It is important to always use HTTPS for any externally accessible endpoints, even in development environments.
Create a High-Performance Blockchain VM in 15 Minutes
This guide will show you how to create a high-performance blockchain development environment in just 15 minutes. It’s all about following a step-by-step process that covers each critical component in the right order. This process works whether you’re setting up a local VM, cloud instance, or container-based environment.
These steps provide a simplified process to create a development environment that balances performance, security, and ease of use. While the specific requirements may vary depending on your blockchain platform, this framework provides a solid foundation that can be customized to any blockchain project.
1. Choosing and Installing Your Base OS
We recommend starting with Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS as your base OS. It provides the best balance of stability and package availability for blockchain development. For your VM, allocate at least 16GB of RAM, 4 CPU cores, and 100GB of SSD storage. During the installation process, enable SSH for remote access and set your locale settings to ensure the correct character encoding for your development tools.
2. Installing the Development Dependencies
Use this command to install the basic development tools: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y build-essential git python3-pip curl wget jq. After that, install the requirements specific to your platform. If you’re developing for Ethereum, you’ll need Node.js 16+ using nvm and Go 1.18+ for client implementations. Set up your shell environment with the right PATH settings and command aliases to make typical blockchain operations easier. For more on setting up your environment, explore virtualized infrastructure solutions.
3. Setting Up Blockchain-Specific Tools
When setting up the development environment for your specific blockchain, you’ll need to install some specific development frameworks. For Ethereum, you can run npm install -g truffle hardhat ethers solc solhint to get a full set of tools. You’ll also want to clone important repositories like OpenZeppelin Contracts for secure reference implementations. Don’t forget to set up local test networks like Ganache or Hardhat Network. Finally, create workspace directories that are consistently organized for contracts, tests, scripts, and deployments.
4. Setting Up Environment Variables
Start by creating a .env file template that includes placeholders for all the necessary configuration values, such as RPC endpoints, network IDs, mnemonic seeds, and API keys. Set up your shell to automatically load a development-specific environment when you navigate to your project directory. You can use a tool like direnv to automatically switch environments when you move between different blockchain projects.
5. Testing and Performance Verification
Before you start working on your project, ensure that your set-up is functioning correctly. You can do this by compiling a sample smart contract, deploying it to your local network, and running a test suite. This will verify that all components are working together as they should. While running these tests, monitor resource usage to ensure that your VM allocation is sufficient. Once you have confirmed that everything is working correctly, take a snapshot of your VM. You can then begin your development work.
Common Questions
When you’re working with your blockchain development VM, you’re likely to come across a few common questions or challenges. The answers to the most common questions, from beginners and experienced developers alike, are listed below.
What’s the least amount of RAM I need to develop on Ethereum?
For basic Ethereum development with small contracts and limited testing, you can get by with 8GB RAM, but you’ll start to see performance bottlenecks during complex operations. This setup is okay for learning and simple projects, but it can get frustrating when you start working on real-world applications. At this bare minimum, you’ll need to be very mindful about what processes you have running at the same time.
If you’re doing serious development work, 16GB is the practical minimum that will allow you to run a local node, your development tools, and the necessary services without constantly running into resource constraints. This will support most development workflows without running into performance issues too often. However, when you’re working with complex DeFi protocols or applications that require multiple interacting contracts, even 16GB can start to feel a little tight during intensive testing scenarios. For those dealing with virtualized infrastructure, optimizing resources is crucial to avoid bottlenecks.
Blockchain development for large-scale enterprises or projects that involve multiple interacting chains can benefit from 32GB or more. This higher allocation allows you to run multiple blockchain nodes at the same time, along with associated monitoring and development tools. If you’re working on protocol-level development or high-performance applications, you should consider this level the standard configuration.
- 8GB: Learning, simple contracts, limited testing capabilities
- 16GB: Professional development with standard workflows
- 32GB: Multi-chain development, protocol work, enterprise applications
- 64GB+: Advanced testing environments, network simulation, research
Can I use WSL2 instead of a dedicated VM for blockchain development?
Yes, WSL2 provides a viable alternative to dedicated VMs for blockchain development on Windows systems. It offers near-native Linux performance with excellent filesystem integration, making it convenient for developers who prefer working in Windows. The WSL2 architecture provides sufficient isolation while allowing easy access to files from Windows applications like VS Code.
Still, WSL2 isn’t without its drawbacks when compared to dedicated VMs. Configuring the network can be more complicated, especially when you’re trying to expose services to external devices for testing purposes. Allocating resources isn’t as exact, either, since WSL2 dynamically shares resources with Windows instead of having fixed allocations. If your team needs an environment that’s 100% consistent or you’re working on blockchain components where performance is critical, dedicated VMs still have the upper hand in terms of predictability and isolation.
What can I do to fix “out of gas” errors in my VM environment?
“Out of gas” errors in development environments are typically due to contract inefficiency, not VM configuration problems. Check your contract code for gas-intensive operations such as unbounded loops or too many storage operations. Tools such as hardhat-gas-reporter offer detailed gas consumption breakdowns by function to help you find problem areas.
When you’re working in a testing environment, you might need to change the gas limit in your local blockchain configuration. If you’re using Hardhat, you can do this by modifying the hardhat.config.js file to increase the gas limit for your local network. If you’re using Ganache, you can increase the available gas by using the –gasLimit flag or by changing the UI settings. Just keep in mind that if you set the gas limit too high in development, you could end up hiding efficiency problems that will cause failures when you deploy to mainnet. So, try to use limits that are similar to what you would use in a production environment.
Should I run a full node or light node in my development VM?
For the majority of development workflows, running a full local development node (such as Hardhat Network or Ganache) instead of connecting to real blockchain networks offers the best combination of speed and functionality. These development nodes provide immediate transaction confirmation and the capability to modify blockchain state for testing scenarios, significantly speeding up the development cycle.
How can I manage multiple blockchain networks on one VM?
By using Docker containers, you can separate different blockchain networks within a single VM. This means you can create a separate container for each network you need to work with. This method avoids version conflicts and network interference, and it allows you to manage multiple blockchain environments easily. You can configure shared volumes to allow your development tools to interact with each container as needed.
Arrange your development workflow so that it’s centered around configuration files for specific networks, which can be activated as and when required. Tools such as Hardhat provide support for multiple network configurations within a single project, which means you can switch target networks easily, using straightforward command-line parameters. Keep environment variable files separate (.env.ethereum, .env.polkadot, and so on) so that they can be loaded depending on the network you’re currently targeting.
If you’re coding for several blockchains at once, you might want to think about using network-specific branches in your codebase. This approach lets you keep specialized code for each platform and share common components through careful merges. Some teams keep a main library of shared functionality with platform-specific implementations that adjust to each blockchain’s unique features.
