If you could use any programming language for smart contracts, what would it be?

[earlz]

I'm wanting to gauge what people are thinking about smart contracts. I know a lot of people don't like Solidity, but if you had a magic box that could support any programming language for smart contracts, what language would you choose and why?

[ranih]

I'd choose the language I'm most familiar with, and I guess that would be the answer of most people.
In my case it'd be python.

You can try looking at open source projects in the crypto world to estimate which language is the most popular...

[earlz]

I'd choose the language I'm most familiar with, and I guess that would be the answer of most people.
In my case it'd be python.

You can try looking at open source projects in the crypto world to estimate which language is the most popular...

Interesting. I figured most people would want a particular language that has more of an emphasis on safety, like Haskell or Rust or something

[ranih]

I'd choose the language I'm most familiar with, and I guess that would be the answer of most people.
In my case it'd be python.

You can try looking at open source projects in the crypto world to estimate which language is the most popular...

Interesting. I figured most people would want a particular language that has more of an emphasis on safety, like Haskell or Rust or something

Maybe...
I think minimum friction is stronger. Moreover, safety ia more a matter of your code than the language you choose.

[s1gs3gv]

Clojure has a lot to recommend itself but you'd want to avoid JVM based languages for resource contraint reasons.

Haskell  has a lot going for it but you'd want to avoid compiled languages for portability reasons when dealing with heterogenous p2p systems.

Agda, Idris, Coq et all have a lot going for them too but they're too complex for common use.

That doesn't leave many choices.

[s1gs3gv]

Moreover, safety ia more a matter of your code than the language you choose.

I couldn't disagree more strongly. Type safety is essential. Going further, in soft contract programming you really want a language that allows proofs of correctness.

[earlz]

Clojure has a lot to recommend itself but you'd want to avoid JVM based languages for resource contraint reasons.

Haskell  has a lot going for it but you'd want to avoid compiled languages for portability reasons when dealing with heterogenous p2p systems.

Agda, Idris, Coq et all have a lot going for them too but they're too complex for common use.

That doesn't leave many choices.

Yes, this is what I'm seeing as well. There's no good language really built for this yet

[systemv]

In my opinion that should be either pure javascript or better, typescript. Lots of people know it, tremendous amount of tools, IDE's, testing frameworks, etc. Also integrating ability to use frameworks like Angular with ts can finally make dapps useful and beautiful and not that ugly looking geeky ones we have today. Bridging gap of dapps and users...

[earlz]

In my opinion that should be either pure javascript or better, typescript. Lots of people know it, tremendous amount of tools, IDE's, testing frameworks, etc. Also integrating ability to use frameworks like Angular with ts can finally make dapps useful and beautiful and not that ugly looking geeky ones we have today. Bridging gap of dapps and users...

I don't know enough about Typescript and it's improvements, but for javascript at least, I wouldn't want to trust millions of dollars to some code written in Javascript. Similar to Solidity there are just too many pitfalls and ways to write code that looks clear and concise but has unexpected behavior. If you want a laugh, watch this "wat" lightning talk (it covers Javascript 1 minute in) to see what I mean https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

[coin_coin]

JAVA, the most useful and wide accepted.