The Ports Are Open: v1.0 Session Kit & New Wharf Website Release

Session Kit (v1.0)

One of the major components of Wharf, the Session Kit, is now production ready and available in a v1.0 release. Along with this comes the release of dozens of other important components, samples, plugins, and templates:

• The Web Renderer, which provides an out-of-the-box user experience.
• 4 sample projects that illustrate how Wharf integrates into popular web frameworks.
• 4 wallet plugins, which allow users to access apps with their preferred wallet.
• 4 transact plugins that make performing transactions on Antelope blockchains easier.
• 3 plugin templates, which allow developers to extend the Session Kit.

All of these and more are available now, and compatible with the Session Kit v1.0 release.

Ready to get started? Follow one of our Session Kit Guides to learn how to integrate or build an Antelope-based web application. If you have any questions, we invite you to join the Discussions on Github.

WharfKit.com

One of Wharf’s major goals is to arm developers in the Antelope ecosystem with the best tools possible when they are building web apps. To do this, developers need a place where they can learn about the product, find reference materials, and engage with their peers. The goal of this website is to help fill those needs in one convenient hub that web developers can visit to learn how to build web apps in the Antelope ecosystem.

To help developers get started using Wharf today, we’ve created a new version of the site that can act as a springboard. What you see here today is not the final website, but the second phase as it moves forward from a simple blog into a full educational site. This is just the beginning when it comes to the guides and documentation.

Today’s update also represents a shift in our website strategy, and moving forward we will be releasing website updates regularly. We will begin using it for Wharf component releases, continue to add additional documentation, and create new guides based upon the community’s needs. If anyone has a request for specific content or documentation, please share your ideas on the Discussions on Github.

The Path So Far

Before diving into what you can expect next from Wharf, it may be helpful for anyone who’s unfamiliar with this project to give a short overview of how we got to where we are today.

In late 2021, Greymass was asked by the EOS Network Foundation to participate in an ecosystem-wide research initiative and report our findings in a document that would later be known as the Wallet+ Blue Paper. The goal was to determine what could be done to improve both the developer and user experiences, to push adoption in Web3. The paper was published in March 2022 and presented 13 different project recommendations, one of which was simply called “Software Development Kits.”

In the months that followed, the Antelope Coalition (consisting of EOS, Telos, UX and WAX) picked up the idea and put out a Request for Proposal to have it built. Greymass responded to with a proposal, and was subsequently awarded a contract to make the Software Development Kits a reality.

Development kicked off in earnest in October 2022, after the first milestone was completed, which outlined the proposed architecture. In November the “Wharf” brand was announced, the website at WharfKit.com began development, and regular public meetings were established to inform the wider community of the project’s progress.

In January of 2023 the first beta releases of Wharf’s Session Kit was made available alongside a technical preview of its transaction signing capabilities. This was followed in March by a second technical preview that showed how it could be used inside of a web application. As May began we started developing the Contract Kit, while early adopters began using the Session Kit in their web applications and providing invaluable feedback. This feedback led to improvements and this eventual v1.0 release of the Session Kit.

It has been a long road to get to this point, after much iteration we are confident that Wharf’s Session Kit is now ready to power the next generation of Antelope-based web apps.

What’s Next

Wharf releases are just getting started, and the next major project release will be the Contract Kit. While the Session Kit was a much needed improvement to the tools Antelope has had for years, the Contract Kit is something we have never had.