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Solidity is a programming language used for developing smart contracts on Ethereum and other blockchain patforms (i.e., DIDO Platform), such as Monax and its Hyperledger Burrow blockchain. British software developer Gavin Wood proposed Solidity in 2014 and developed the high-level programming language along with other Ethereum aficionados, including Christian Reitwiessner, Alex Beregszaszi, Liana Husikyan and Yoichi Hirai.

Solidity is compiled to Bytecode (or portable code) that is executable on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the runtime environment for smart contracts in Ethereum. Although other languages, including Serpent, Viper and Mutan, can also be compiled into EVM machine-level bytecode to run on Ethereum nodes for payment, Solidity is the most widely adopted.

Solidity was created to be easily learned because it employs many concepts – such as variables, functions, classes, arithmetic operations and string manipulation – that appear in popular modern programming languages. An intentionally pared-down, loosely-typed language, Solidity draws from C, C++, C#, JavaScript, PowerShell and Python. It also adopts a syntax that similarly resembles ECMAScript (JavaScript). For example, in Java or C, a programmer would create some form of a main function, while Solidity uses a contract written similarly.

Source: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Solidity