How Observability Is Different for Web3 Apps
Web3 represents the next evolutionary step in building web applications. Web3 combines blockchain technology, decentralized protocols and peer-to-peer interactions to give birth to a new standard for transparency and security through decentralized applications (dApps). The dApps rely on decentralized servers instead of traditional (Web2) applications based on a centralized server.
However, this new paradigm presents challenges for application performance monitoring and observability. Let’s explore how you can implement the main pillars of observability — logging, metrics, and tracing — in a Django-based Web3 application using Scout APM.
How Is Observability Different in Decentralized Apps?
Observability in Web3 dApps poses several unique challenges that need to be resolved.
Immutable Transactions
Web3 dApps rely heavily on blockchain technology. Generally speaking, once a blockchain transaction has been confirmed, it cannot be changed, even if there has been a mistake. This makes it extremely important to have close monitoring and observability to detect and prevent issues before data is written to the blockchain.
Distributed Data
Traditional web applications rely on centralized servers while Web3 dApps rely on a globally distributed and decentralized network of nodes. A robust observability solution is therefore required to aggregate and analyze data across this complex network.
Variable Network Conditions
The distributed nature of Web3 networks leads to inherent uncertainty. Transactions are sometimes delayed or they fail altogether. This leads to a large variance in transaction times.
Transaction Costs
Many blockchain networks impose a fee for every transaction relayed over the network and successfully written to the blockchain. On the Ethereum network, for example, this fee is known as gas. As a result, it is critical that you not only monitor the functionality of your Web3 dApp but also pay close attention to the economic efficiency of it. Transactions that are unnecessarily large or too many transactions increase the cost of running your Web3 dApp.
Smart Contracts
Decentralized applications rely heavily on smart contracts. A smart contract refers to a self-executing program deployed on a blockchain and executed by the nodes that run the network.
Web3 dApps depend upon smart contracts for their operations. They serve as the “backend logic” of the dApp, running on the “server” (blockchain network). The operations executed by a smart contract often incur transaction fees. These fees are used to compensate the nodes that run the blockchain network for the computational power they provide to run the smart contract code.
Additionally, smart contracts often handle sensitive operations like releasing or receiving funds in the form of cryptocurrency. Accordingly, it is critical to closely monitor the smart contract to ensure that the funds are handled properly to avoid catastrophic losses.
Third-Party Dependencies
Most non-trivial decentralized apps (dApps) often interact with multiple third-party dApps or contracts. This introduces complex transaction flows that can be hard to trace and monitor. More complex Web3 applications involve cross-chain operations where a smart contract on one blockchain interacts with smart contracts on a different blockchain. This compounds the complexity and makes transaction flows more difficult to trace and monitor.
Essential Features of a Robust Web3 Observability Solution
Given the unique challenges that the Web3 environment poses, it’s evident that traditional observability solutions might not be sufficient. A more advanced solution that addresses these pain points. is needed. Here are the essential features to look for in an observability solution for a Web3 dApp.
Real-Time Monitoring
Given the irreversible nature of blockchains and the fees associated with transactions and smart contract operations, real-time monitoring is non-negotiable. Any solution you adopt should offer instantaneous alerts and insights.
Distributed Data Aggregation
An ideal observability solution must give you the ability to pull data from a decentralized set of sources, ensuring complete visibility across the network. If your dApp performs cross-chain operations, this must be considered as well. An observability solution that has this capability will give you cross-layer visibility.
Network Analytics
Network analytics are essential, even with traditional web applications. They are even more important in a distributed environment like a Web3 dApp. Network Analytics provides insights into network congestion, transaction queue times and possibly even gas prices. This critical information empowers you to make informed decisions, anticipate issues and address them preemptively.
Custom Observability Solutions
Web3 is still in its infancy and is evolving rapidly. Given this breakneck pace of change, you need an observability solution that allows customization. The ability to extend the base features will enable you to fill in any gaps between what the solution provider offers and what your dApp needs. Moreover, as the web3 landscape evolves, you can respond quickly, without having to wait for your solution provider to roll out new features.
Scout APM with Django for Web3 Observability
Scout APM is an observability solution you can use for your web3 dApp. It comes out of the box with features like performance insights, memory bloat detection, SQL query monitoring and more. Its most valuable feature, however, is custom instrumentation, which allows you to extend Scout to add your own monitoring and performance measurement code, ensuring insights are tailored to your Web3 dApp’s unique needs.
This allows for more fine-grained monitoring, enabling you to hone in on particular operations or functions that might be of interest. You can choose what to track, how to track it and where to report the data.
Scout APM is compatible with many popular programming languages and frameworks including Python (Django and other frameworks), Ruby, PHP, Node.js and more.
