Blockchain technology is a platform and language agnostic technology. You can use pretty much any major programming language to write blockchains. Two major components of blockchain are distributed database and hashing, that you can use any major language that support these two functionalities.
Besides the core product, you may also need a wallet, other front end components, and libraries. So, if you want to build a wallet, you could build in any language. A wallet can be a client application runs on a local machine that you can write in C++, Java, or C#. It can also be a Web component that can be written in any web language such as HTML, JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET, and Node.
Some of the common programming languages used to build popular blockchains include the following:
- Java
- C++
- JavaScript
- Go
- Python
- C#
- Ruby
- Solidity
- PHP
Major blockchains developed using these languages but if you look at the major cryptocurrencies and blockchain open source projects.
- Bitcoin – Written in C++.
- Ethereum – Written in C++ and solidity that was designed to write ethereum smart contracts.
- Ripple – Written in python.
- Steller – Steller core was written in C++ but also includes JavaScript and C++ for other components.
- IOTA – Written in Java and JavaScript.
- Verge – Written in PHP and JavaScript.
- Stratis – Originally written in C++ but slowly moved to C# and .NET Core.
- Bitcoin Cash – C++ and Ruby.
- NEM – Java, JavaScript, Swift
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