Libra developer spotlight
We’re so excited to see so many leading developers from around the globe innovating and working on the Libra* testnet. We wanted to share a few examples that caught our eye!
Transactions
Mike Kelly, Founder of fintech app PayWithCurl, in this Twitter thread, showed off a demo Libra wallet and range of test-mode payments applications he and his team had built on the platform:
View Tweet.
“From our builder’s standpoint: Libra is obviously still very early days and there are some rough edges, but the tooling and docs for getting started and poking around are very good. A lot of attention to detail. If this is the future of bank accounts and payments, happy days!”
Though a block explorer wasn’t released at launch, developers were quick to get to work, with a polished solution for easily scanning transactions cropping up seemingly overnight. Gal Diskin is to thank for the creation and maintenance of Librabrowser.io.
“It was exciting to build a tool to support the developer community which was why I got hooked up on it and worked all night the first day to deliver it. I want to thank all the contributors that reached out and helped improve Librabrowser.io after it’s creation, it is really great to see the power of community around Libra development.”
Other community members have released Libra block explorers for the testnet – these include LibraVista, Libranaut, and Libratics, amongst others.
Dev Tools and Beyond
Those transacting on the testnet are building some of the earliest Libra applications – software engineer Agro Rachmatullah, was quick to release one of the first iOS Libra wallets, as he demonstrates in this video.
View Tweet.
“World’s first unofficial iOS #libra wallet, made in 1 night…Transfer time is so fast… 😲“
For users that simply wish to try out Libra without setting up a client, a disposable web wallet created by Kulap can be tried out here – it even comes with an extensive guide on building your own. Users can create their wallets (with 100 inactive Test Libra Coins) and just open a web page to send it to their friends via QR Code!
Nattapon Nimakul, Smart Contract Developer at Kulap.io said;
“This POC Libra wallet focusses on users to show how it works by allowing them to play it on their smartphone, laptop or desktop.”
It is equally important to recognise the work done by talented developers to lower the barriers to entry for others – for those more comfortable programming in traditional languages, gRPC clients have surfaced (JavaScript, Python, Go), and Docker aficionados will be happy to hear that full-stack dev Michael Pambo Ognana has released an image for running through your first Libra testnet transaction.
Other notable mentions include the first token launched on Libra, REST APIs and integration into ChainIDE.
The gRPC endpoints exposed by the Libra Core client have allowed for great flexibility when it comes to programming. Members of the community have been quick to release implementations of clients in a range of languages, so that developers could rapidly start building Libra apps in Go, Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript and C#.
Need somewhere to spend your testnet coins? Try out Kulap’s Libra Coffee e-commerce prototype.
How to Get Involved
We’ve been overwhelmed by the positivity and interest in the Libra, and we look forward to working collaboratively with our developer community to see more innovative applications evolving in the coming weeks, months and years.
Newcomers seeking to get involved with the community are encouraged to join the official Libra Developer Community here, where users and Libra engineers frequently answer technical questions. Don’t forget to check out the comprehensive documentation on our website made available for developers looking to get started. Last but not least, stay up to date with all of the latest news and developments on Twitter and GitHub.
*On December 1, 2020, the Libra Association was renamed to Diem Association.