How is Rally different from Ethereum Mainnet?
Tags: blockchain, ethereum, rally, beginners
Published: 2021-10-01 01:51:20

This article outlines the key differences between the Rally network and Ethereum mainnet, two blockchains widely used to create "social tokens" or cryptocurrencies that represent artists, creators, and communities. 

## What is Rally and Ethereum?
### Ethereum
Ethereum is the most popular built-upon blockchain. Developers have built thousands of applications, tools, protocols, and cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain, more than any blockchain by far.

Hundreds of creators and communities have created their own social tokens on Ethereum, most notably with [Roll](https://tryroll.com/) and [Coinvise](https://www.coinvise.co/). 

### Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible sidechains
Most recently, Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible sidechains or secondary blockchains based on the Ethereum network have formed. The most popular include [xDai](https://www.xdaichain.com/) and [Polygon](https://www.polygon.com/). 

These sidechains allow users to create tokens that are compatible with the Ethereum blockchain. Since EVM compatible chains are based off of Ethereum, many tools, applications, and protocols built on Ethereum can utilize the same templates to integrate with EVM compatible chains.

### Rally
The [Rally network](https://rally.io/) is a non-EVM compatible blockchain that is widely-known for social tokens. Currently, dozens of major creators, from Grammy Award winning producer !llmind and popular Twitch streamer Alliestrasza, have created their social token via Rally. 

## What are the key differences between Ethereum, EVM compatible chains, and Rally?

### 1. How to Identify the Blockchains
#### Ethereum and EVM compatible chains
The Ethereum blockchain and each EVM compatible chain is assigned a positive number unique network, chain ID, and an RPC method. 

#### Rally 
The Rally network is built on top of a larger blockchain ecosystem named Forte. The Rally network is identified as Rally and does not have a numeric network or chain ID. 

### 2. How to Identify Tokens
#### Ethereum and EVM compatible chains
A non-fungible or cryptocurrency-like token on the Ethereum blockchain and EVM compatible chains have the following attributes:

* Contract address (numeric identifier of token)
* Name of the token (symbol/name of the token)

Since different tokens can have the same name but not the same contract address, developers must rely on the contract address to identify tokens. 

#### Rally 
A social token on Rally identified by its symbol, starting with $. 

Unlike on Ethereum or EVM chains, the social token symbol is unique and is the sole identifier. 

### 3. How A User Interacts with the Blockchain
#### Ethereum and EVM compatible chains
To interact with the Ethereum and EVM compatible blockchains, users create a digital wallet that is assigned a 42-character identifier called a wallet address.

A user can utilize the same wallet with the same wallet address across any Ethereum or EVM compatible chain.

#### Rally
To interact with the Rally blockchain, users create an email login with a username and password on Rally.io. 

A username is assigned an number-alpha identifier named a Rally ID on the backend. The Rally ID is often needed to develop login capabilities on the apps. The user often only needs their username and does not need the Rally ID to interact with the Rally chain.

Unlike on Ethereum and side-chains, the Rally login system is more friendly to users. Depending on how you set up the authentication of your app, the Rally login is less cumbersome. Since there is only one login method for users on Rally, developers do not need to keep track of hundreds of wallets that can connect to the chain.  

### 4. How A Developer Integrates with Wallet Login
#### Ethereum and EVM compatible chains
To integrate digital wallet login on an app, a developer must receive an object with the following:
	
* Wallet provider (the name of the wallet i.e. Metamask)
* Wallet address (the specific identifier of wallet account)
* User signature (the hash confirmation that returns when the user "signs" their wallet prompt or confirms that they own the wallet)
* Network (identifier for blockchain)

Wallet modal SDKs such as [Web3Modal](https://github.com/Web3Modal/web3modal) and [BlockNative Onboard](https://docs.blocknative.com/onboard) enable simpler integrations with a wide variety of Ethereum and EVM compatible wallets. 

#### Rally
To integrate Rally login, a developer must register their app callback and account credentials with Rally and integrate their specific Rally Authentication system. 

Current Steps:
1. Once the app and account credentials are registered, the developer will pass in their account credentials to the 	
`v1/oauth/register` API to obtain a bearer token.
2. They will then pass the bearer token and callback of their application registered to Rally to `v1/oauth/authorize`. This API will return a Rally.io login link that your app must direct the user to sign in.
3. Once the Rally user signs in, they will redirect back to the callback that you registered with Rally in in Step 2 with an additional param named `code`.
4. You will pass in the value in the code param into `v1/oauth/userinfo` to receive the Rally username.

This Rally username is the equivalent of a user "wallet address" in Ethereum. 

### 5. How Access Data on Chain
#### Ethereum and EVM compatible chains
Since the Ethereum and EVM chains are completely open, there are numerous ways to access and index data on their chains. 

Several marketplaces create their own APIs specific to tokens minted on their platforms. Indexers such as [The Graph](https://thegraph.com/en/) allow you to create your own APIs to index specific contract addresses or created tokens. 

#### Rally
Rally is the sole provider of APIs on its blockchain. You can find the API docs [here](https://api-docs.rally.io/). 

Though there are less options to get data from the chain, a single source provider can streamline the returned data format. 

## The Conclusion

The Ethereum and Rally blockchains are the two most widely known chains to minting social tokens, a new use case for blockchain tokens that enables creators and communities to become independent. Ethereum and its EVM side chains have strong support and compatibility that allows for rapid mass integration. Though Rally follows a different process to accessing its chain, Rally enables a streamlined approach that is more user friendly to users.