How to become a blockchain developer on a budget in 2020
Updated: Jul 7, 2020
what is blockchain development? Let’s keep it simple. Shall we? There are two types of blockchain development.
blockchain core development
blockchain software development
So who are Blockchain core developers and what do they do? Blockchain core developers are responsible for optimizing blockchain protocols, crafting the architecture of blockchain systems, building the consensus design, and supervising the entire blockchain. In modern computing, they can be compared to core web developers who develop protocols like HTTP, SSL, and network architecture.
On the other hand, blockchain software developers use the blockchain architecture created by core developers, and on top of it create smart contracts, decentralized apps (Dapps), and also supervise full-stack development on the blockchain.
I will focus on blockchain software development.
So where do you start and how can you find online courses and tutorials?
Understand the basics first. To understand blockchain development, you need to understand the basic principles of how computers, websites, and servers interact with the internet. I highly recommend starting with web development. This knowledge will give you a broad view of how both the back end and the front end of web development work. Without this basic knowledge, it will be tough to grasp the essential aspects of blockchain development.
The fantastic part is that you neither need rocket science, a computer science degree nor vast sums of money to start. You can start right from Udemy by comparing courses in full-stack web development and choosing the ones that interest you. My recommendation is to keep on checking they always offer discounts every week. By following this article and with lots of practice, you will not only become a blockchain developer but a full stack web developer as well.
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar
Here is one of the courses that I highly recommend. If you are already familiar with web development, you can skip this part and go straight to blockchain development
Start by understanding the basics of web development
The complete 2019 web Development Bootcamp by Angela YU-
The above course is one of the top-rated web development courses on Udemy. The last time I checked it had over 36000 students and 4.7 out of 5 star ratings, so its a good value for your money. This course will teach you everything you need to know from zero to hero in web development. What will you learn in this course?
1.HTML 2.CSS 3.JAVASCRIPT and essential Js frameworks 4. Node JS. 5. Control flow (Git and Github) 6.Unix command line 7.Express JS 8.APIs 9.Databases (SQL, MongoDB, Mongoose 10. Authentification and security. Once you have understood both front and back end web development now, you can navigate the deep waters of blockchain development. One of the courses that I have found resourceful in my journey as a blockchain developer is :
Smart contract programming by Ivan on tech
What will you learn in this course? First of all, you will learn to program in Javascript and C++ from scratch; you will then continue by learning to program on Ethereum, NEM, and EOS.
This course is perfect for everyone who wants to be part of the blockchain ecosystem by actually building it!
You will learn how to develop smart contracts, Dapps, tokens, and airdrops on top of Ethereum, EOS, and NEM.No programming knowledge or technical expertise needed in this course.
Another useful resource will be the good old youtube; here you will find some of the courses that have quality information on blockchain development.
This youtube channel has tutorials and resources on blockchain technology and its a must-watch for everyone from beginners to advanced level developers. So why bother with blockchain development?
Last year blockchain development grew by a jaw-dropping 6000%. Yes, six thousand with three zeros and it’s now the fastest-growing skill on freelance sites like Upwork. Now let that sink in for a minute……………….
let’s dig deeper into blockchain software development and discuss Ethereum blockchain development. You can read more about the history of Ethereum here.
Why Ethereum?
1. Developers sweetheart. Mirror mirror on the wall who is the beloved of them all?
In software development, the smartest majority wins, and according to statistics, Ethereum has the brains and the numbers too. Ethereum is one of the most adopted platforms for blockchain development. Statistics from truffle one of the widely used Ethereum frameworks shows that there have been over 1.3 million lifetime downloads in just three years. 2. You are in good company Ethereum has 30 times more developers than the next blockchains combined. Ethereum developers' community has been snowballing even though Ethereum is a very “young” blockchain. Statistics show that 94 out of 100 developers prefer building their projects on Ethereum, there are also over 21000 repositories, and 387000 commits on GitHub on Ethereum alone.
“It’s always better to be the first than to be the best.” -Jack Ma
There are many good things that we can say about Ethereum, but the real icing on the cake is the quasi touring complete Ethereum virtue machine to which different high-level languages can be compiled. Solidity enables developers to create Dapps(decentralized applications) through interacting with smart contracts.
It has a similar syntax to Javascript, which is one of the widely used languages in both back end and front end web development, thus enabling most developers to adopt it with ease. You can learn more about solidity here Ethereum provides a lot of support through lots of documentation and support and a web-based IDE called remix which can be fired up right from the browser.
4. Show me the money Traditionally companies go public by raising funds from investors by selling company shares through an initial public offering (IPO). The era of cryptocurrencies has brought significant disruption to this IPO model by introducing the initial coin offering (ICO). ICOs raise funds for companies and startups by offering investors crypto tokens tradable on cryptocurrency exchanges in exchange for fiat currency or crypto. More than 90% of the ICOs are conducted on the Ethereum blockchain. According to Forbes in 2018, ICOS raised a cumulative amount of US $11,690,981,663.
Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrencies are still a new technology that has not been fully adopted, and there is considerable growth expected in this space in the coming years. This is undoubtedly an ideal time to embrace blockchain technology.