Recommended Architecture for Dapps on XION
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Building dapps on XION opens the door to a decentralized and user-friendly development model, but to fully take advantage of it, you need to rethink how your app is structured. This guide outlines a recommended architecture for developing scalable, secure, and gasless dapps on XION using smart contracts, modern frontend tools, and built-in wallet functionality.
At a high level, a typical XION dapp consists of the following components:
Frontend: A browser-based or mobile user interface that connects directly to the blockchain.
Wallet Layer: Wallets are generated and managed on the frontend using the abstraxion library.
Smart Contracts: Core business logic written in Rust using the CosmWasm framework and deployed to the XION blockchain.
Optional Indexer: An off-chain service (e.g. SubQuery) that provides advanced filtering, aggregation, and data access from the blockchain for frontend consumption.
Optional Storage Layer: For storing large or private files, decentralized storage solutions like IPFS or Jackal can be integrated.
Built using modern JavaScript frameworks like React or Vue, the frontend serves as the primary interface for users to interact with your dapp.
Wallet creation, login, and transaction signing are handled via abstraxion, a sub-package of xion.js, which eliminates the need for external wallets or browser extensions.
User onboarding is seamless, you can programmatically set up a fee grant via XION Treasury Contracts, allowing your dapp to cover the gas costs for users.
XION’s treasury contracts go even further by enabling a Web2-style authorization model. Users can approve a Grantz (similar to OAuth2 scopes), authorizing your frontend to send signed transactions on their behalf, no wallet popups required.
The frontend communicates directly with deployed smart contracts and the XION blockchain via RPC, gRPC, REST APIs, or WebSockets using xion.js.
Since your frontend is entirely static, it can be deployed to platforms like Vercel, Netlify, or any CDN. The full dapp loads in the user's browser, there's no need for server-side rendering or backend infrastructure.
All core business logic is implemented as CosmWasm smart contracts, written in Rust and deployed to the XION blockchain.
Contracts store critical application state using a key-value data model, secured and managed on-chain.
Common use cases include:
Managing token balances
Storing profile metadata
Handling voting, staking, or other custom logic
For apps that require complex queries, analytics, filtering, or historical lookups, an indexer is essential.
Tools like SubQuery or Numia parse blockchain data and expose it via GraphQL or REST APIs, making it easy to power advanced frontend views without querying the chain directly.
Improves performance, scalability, and responsiveness of your UI.
On-chain storage is expensive and limited, use decentralized storage networks like IPFS or Jackal to store:
Large files (images, PDFs)
Encrypted or private user content
NFT metadata and media
Smart contracts can reference these assets via content hashes, ensuring verifiability while offloading heavy data.
