Why add new blockchain support?
Market & developer demand
Supporting additional blockchains widens product reach, unlocks unique primitives (fast finality, L2 cost savings, novel token standards) and attracts ecosystems of builders. From wallets to SDKs, devs expect first‑class integrations with clear docs and examples.
Security & UX first
Design goal:
Safe by default
Every new chain must preserve existing security guarantees. That means deterministic transaction construction, robust nonce/sequence handling, and explicit user consent for any network‑specific actions (staking, contract approvals).
How to integrate — a pragmatic approach
1. Discovery & risk assessment
Assess consensus model, finality, typical block times, transaction fee model, common exploits and available explorer/APIs. Determine if on‑chain indexing or light clients are required.
2. Architecture & abstraction
Create an adapter layer: a clean interface that normalizes accounts, signing, fee estimation and event parsing across chains. Keep chain‑specific logic isolated so adding or removing a chain is low risk.
3. Developer ergonomics
Publish SDKs, code snippets, and ready‑to‑use RPC examples. Provide clear migration guides and sandbox testnets for integration tests.
4. Test matrix
- Unit tests for serialization & signature formats
- Integration tests with public testnets & local validators
- Fuzzing for malformed transactions
5. Monitoring & observability
Log chain health, mempool anomalies, failed transaction reasons and rate limit errors. Surface these metrics to SRE and developer dashboards.
Code example — adapter stub
// Javascript adapter interface (pseudo)
class ChainAdapter {
constructor(rpcUrl) { this.rpc = rpcUrl }
async getBalance(address) { /* normalize response */ }
async buildTx(txParams) { /* chain specific op */ }
async signTx(unsignedTx, signer) { /* uses appropriate signing scheme */ }
async broadcast(signedTx) { /* return txHash*/ }
}
Roadmap & priorities
Phase 0 — Research (2–4 weeks)
Choose top candidate chains based on user demand and developer support. Prepare security playbook and identify testnets.
Phase 1 — Implement core flows
Wallet creation, address derivation, balance queries, send/receive, and transaction signing for each chain. Publish SDK v0.1 and sample apps.
Phase 2 — Advanced features
Support staking, governance interactions, cross‑chain message handling, and contract calls. Add enhanced UX for approvals and gas fee recommendations.
Phase 3 — Polishing & launch
- Docs, tutorials, and partner integrations
- Security audit and bounty program
- Gradual roll‑out with telemetry-based gating
Best practices checklist
- Isolate chain logic behind adapters.
- Test on mainnet forks or public testnets before release.
- Offer deterministic transaction previews to users.
- Provide explicit permission scopes for each chain feature.
- Keep SDKs minimal and well documented.