# The DevX Initiative by Concordium. With the release of Concordiums Rust Smart Contract testnet and our upcoming mainnet, it's time to provide the community with an inside look at Concordium's developer relations' strategy, particularly our approach to the Rust developer ecosystem. --- ## Developers as Humans First Developer relationships are vital to launching an open-source project properly. Commercial projects generally approach developers because they know how to design, create, deploy, and maintain complex technical structures or as a box-ticking exercise to validate their platform's viability. At Concordium, we believe that developers are artisans and ontological leaders. We believe software developers are not coding drones but passionate, creative individuals who want to engage with the world on the ground and not just behind a screen. We believe in engaging with developers on what they are inspired by beyond what they can create on a single platform. The DevX Initiative has this approach as its foundation. -- We believe software developers are not coding drones but passionate, creative individuals who want to engage with the world on the ground and not just behind a screen. ++ We want to actively engage with developers as the passionate, creative individuals that they are. We want to reach out to you where you are instead of forcing you on a platform. --- ## Reciprocity as a Principle The Dev Initiative aims to be a dynamic, practical dialogue with you as Rust developers, rooted in the philosophy of reciprocity as a principle. Reciprocity, as a principle, does not mean //quid pro quo//. The DevX Initiative aims to be a component of the Rust community by being aligned with the Rust languages's core goal of empowerment. We believe that to "get", you must "give" first. Concordium desires to strengthen Rust developer all around the globe and support the programming languages growth and adoption, which is also a part of Concordium's commercial success. The DevX Initiative from Concordium wants to give its researchers and developers an outlet to contribute to Rust in all areas beyond its commercial interest while reaching out externally to Rust developers. Vibrant ecosystems need participation and reciprocity of their users. --- ## Location, Location, Location Developers are in communities (Meetup groups, Discord servers, Reddit feeds). The DevX Initiative is not trying to create new and independent ecosystems using incentivization tactics. We believe this doesn't reflect the type of connection needed to cultivate a real community. We believe at the DevX Initiative that developer engagement is about reaching out to where developers are, participating in their domains, and contributing to their already active communities. Our duty is to invest in the Rust ecosystem, not only with funds but by contributing code, engaging in interest groups, sharing research, being available to mentor, providing workshops and meetups. We want to cross the divide between blockchain and other communities. --- ## Impacting in Praxis The DevX Initiative wants to have a stake in the Rust ecosystem based on contributing. Concordium's DevX approach is rooted in being consistent; the intention is to make manageable, constant input that positively impacts Rust. The aim will be to make meaningful input where we are strong following the structure outlined below: * Research * Code * Community participation ## Research Prof. Bas Spitters and his team from the CoBRA are excited to participate in the Rust Formal Verification Interest Group. Some of the things they are excited to share include. Research on the generation of high-assurance cryptographic code. ## Contributing to the Hacspec project. Sharing the details of ConCert, which is a framework for formally verifying smart contracts written in Rust but has wider benefits for Rust Ecosystem as a whole. Prof. Diego Aranha and his team from the University of Aarhus are excited to work with the Rust in Cryptography Working Group members. -- Crypto working group ++ Contributions to the compiler, such as: https://rustfest.global/session/8-rfc-secret-types-in-rust/ https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/2859 Contributing to https://github.com/zkcrypto/bls12_381 ## Contributing to the governance of the Rust Cryptography Working Group They will be joined by Dr Daniel Tschudi and Dr Christian Matt, from Concordium and ETH Zurich, to contribute to both groups. ## Code Dr Torben Pedersen (Concordium CTO), Dr Aleš Bizjak, and Dr Thomas Dinsdale-Young will contribute actively to open-source Rust crates and packages where applicable and with the direction and consultation of the wider Rust community. ## Community Participation ### Rust Conferences and Meetups Members of the DevX Initiative from Concordium will be sponsoring and speaking at several Rust Conferences, including RustFest, and Rust community user groups, including Rust London. ## DevX Rust Events: The DevX Initiative will host workshops, hackathons, game jams and meetups to help people learn Rust. We will share a roadmap of events with the community that will detail all the events we plan to host in the coming months. We are planning workshops such as the Ferris Commit Club, which serves to be a learning group where developers can discuss and dissect contributions to exciting upcoming features and be a place for developers to build their confidence to make their own contributions to Rust. https://jazzband.co/ ## DevX Rust Content: The DevX Initiative will share research papers and blog posts. There are plans for a YouTube channel with Rust tutorials and recordings of Rust Interest Group meetings. The DevX Initiative will also create a new space for conversation and interaction in the Rust community by hosting a monthly space on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces for general, open discourse about the Rust Community and Ecosystem. The creation of content and the facilitation of DevX's community participation will be lead by: * Beni Issembert * Suhas Hedge * Ernest Kissiedu The DevX Initiative wants to embed itself as a part of the Rust community. We aim to liaise with prominent members of the Rust community as we navigate this journey. --- ## Next Steps To realise our ambition, we will launch a dedicated web platform for developers. The DevX Initiative website will be a free platform brought to you by Concordium as the ultimate home base for developers.