Smart Contract Development for Cryptocurrency Investment Platform

Project Background

Our client is a US-based FinTech startup that has developed a platform for crypto investors that allows them to control diversified portfolios, make transactions on a decentralized exchange, and store coins on cold wallets.

A key factor that keeps investors hesitant about the cryptocurrency market is its extreme volatility, where a crypto can see up to 20% rise and fall in one day.

To dispel doubts and attract new customers to the platform, the company developed patent-pending risk mitigation technologies, based on blockchain and smart contracts, which they wanted to integrate into the existing solution.

The client was searching for a skillful service development provider who would carry out the delivery of custom crowdsale smart contracts. The vendor needed to possess more than just exceptional technical expertise — they needed a keen interest in FinTech, a proven capability in offering non-trivial solutions, and a portfolio of successful projects.

The Itexus team’s blend of skillful engineers and business analysts with expertise in finance made us the vendor of choice. As the core development provider, we were challenged with delivering smart contract implementation against tough deadlines.

Technical Solution Highlights

To deploy the smart contract technology, we studied different options and finally agreed upon a perfectly balanced tech stack that is dedicated to smart contract implementation.

The solution is based on the Ethereum blockchain, one of the most popular platforms for building tokens using smart contracts. Its ERC-20 protocol lends mass acceptability to the delivered tokens and allows them to be re-used by other applications, from wallets to decentralized exchanges.

To accelerate the development process while still staying in line with best-practice industry standards and security practices, we chose the OpenZeppelin library, the de-facto standard for secure smart contract development, used for more than 12% of the tokens built on Ethereum.

The library contains open-source base contracts, which, when combined with each other, provide customized contracts.

To make the system compatible with the ERC-20 protocol, our engineers leveraged OpenZeppelin’s contract files for the full implementation of the token standard. This way, we introduced a system of allowances for users to emit or burn tokens, ensured built-in functionality for putting a pause on certain operations after a bug has been discovered, and added a list of blacklisted addresses to comply with the AML regulations.

Our developers used Solidity, a high-level programming language, which is most often used for smart contracts in Ethereum.

To provide USD to token exchange, we used the Coinbase platform. Its APIs allowed us to implement a ready-to-use solution that supports a whole payment workflow without extending the development phase.

A web app has been designed to provide an interface between the users and the blockchain, so they can see information and send transactions quickly and easily, sign up and sign in, and manage their wallets. For the development of the app, we used Python for the backend and React.JS for the frontend.

Results & Future Plans

The Itexus FinTech development team has provided the existing web app with the required functionality, in complete accordance with the client’s initial expectations and requirements. The solution will go live once the patent on the risk mitigation technologies has been granted.

Once the solution has been launched on the crypto market, we will analyze user reactions. If the reception is positive, Itexus will be offered an extended agreement for further development of the product and the delivery of additional blockchain-powered features.