The blockchain industry has grown famous and has attracted a spontaneous amount of curious people ready to learn and skill up considering the different levels of unemployment/underemployment all over the world. The blockchain industry has given opportunities to Traders, Event organizers, Marketers, tech experts from Developers, Designers, DevOps engineers, Game developers, Q&A Testers, project managers, Developer advocates. This week I had my first talk for the year and I had an opportunity to talk about how to get started as a smart contract developer and shared a couple of resources that I thought would be of help to someone who might read through this article.
Here is a list of prerequisites required to get started:-
- Basic understanding of web2: HTML/CSS/JAVASCRIPT among other programming languages
- Have an interest in blockchain technology: understand general basics of blockchain technology itself, and how it works(immutability, public ledger), blockchain use-cases like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others from cryptocurrencies, Decentralized finance, NFTs, Metaverse among others
- Have a general understanding of the characteristics of blockchain
- immutable
- traceability
- privacy protection
- independence
- learn the different blockchain networks: Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Solana, Stacks, Celo, among others
- get started with smart contract development: smart contract development language(Rust, Solidity, or Clarity)
- For beginners, it's advisable to pick Ethereum blockchain development as it has many use cases, a lot of learning resources free & paid online and there are a lot of EVM compatible chains that you can work with or build on.
solidity and smart contract development
- get basics of solidity programming language
- start writing smart contracts, compiling and deploying using solidity on IDEs like Remix
- write different smart contract use-cases like ERC20 contract, ERC20 Fungible Token & EIP-721: NFT standard
- use libraries and frameworks like Hardhat, Truffle and write tests of the contracts you’re writing
- attend boot camps that teach smart contract development or get resources online. Also constantly follow the different blockchain networks as they constantly hold hackathons and training for people interested in smart contract development.
- Writing secure Smart contract
- Auditing Smart Contracts: Certik
solidity cheatsheet
Here is a list of blockchain programs/courses/schools that you can register to take in order to learn blockchain development
- Web3Bridge: it offers training for Web2(Javascript, HTML, CSS), Web3(blockchain development: introduction to blockchain development, solidity, writing smart contracts), and advanced programs for Web3 graduates. The program is entirely free, offers onsite and online training, and has two cohorts per year. Web3Bridge also is a lot of blockchain development training, especially across Africa. If you're interested in this program the trick is to apply early and be fully dedicated as they offer advanced training.
- Blockgamesgg is an 8-week training program for developers to shape the future of Web3 by teaching how to solve problems by leveraging blockchain technology. It is organized by NestCoin in collaboration with HNG Internship and Zuri Academy.
- ChainLink Academy is an open-source learning program by Chainlink the decentralized oracle network that provides reliable, tamper-proof inputs & outputs for complex smart contracts on any blockchain network. The program is absolutely free and anyone is welcome to contribute to the learning resources by creating a pull request to the project's Github repository.
- Consensys Academy: it's a blockchain developer online BootCamp that offers training in Ethereum blockchain development: introduction to blockchain, Solidity, a smart contract among others. The program is one of the top sorts of, it's paid and offers a certificate at the end. At times there are scholarship opportunities to join the program. It has one cohort per year check they're a site for more details
- rsk Academy education the new generation about bitcoin, blockchain, and open-source technologies. Offers courses: blockchain for developers, blockchain for business
- Encode Club is a place to get learning, building, hired, and funded. It offers educative workshops, Bootcamps i.e intensive training to become certified blockchain developers, hackathons, accelerator programs, investment opportunities, and AMAs with industry experts.
- BlockDevsUnited - L_EARN is a learning programming that offers developers learning blockchain development an incentive of 2.45 DAI if they pass the tests that come after every learning module i.e Learn & Earn. Check their Github repository then join Discord and Telegram channels where you can show interest in taking the test after learning.
- EatTheBlocks a number of paid and free courses to learn blockchain development i.e solidity smart contracts and Ethereum Decentralized applications. EatTheBlock Youtube has resources for learning blockchain development
- Smart Contract Programmer - YouTube: It has videos of writing different smart contracts and understanding/mastering Solidity.
- BSC X ChainIDE Developer Bootcamp: Binance Smart Chain in collaboration with ChainIDE are running their first Developer Bootcamp that focuses on NFTs, Blockchain games, and Metaverse. You can register for this and updates on future ones.
- CS50: Introduction to Computer Science
- freeCodeCamp
- Crypto Zombies
- OpenZeppelin
- Solidity Patterns
Non-Technical skills/Visibility
- Github Profile
- Networking on Twitter: follow smart contract developers, engage them and ask questions
- participate in hackathons & bounties on Gitcoin
- attend meetups and volunteer to speak in events
apply for jobs frequently: smart contract engineer
- Uniswap
- AAVE: contact them with your resume
- cryptojoblist
- Paradigm opportunities
- gitcoin bounties
- check career pages of blockchain networks that you like
solidity devs
- lower salary $1k & $3k as starting salary for junior devs
- intermediate devs: higher than $3k
- integration engineers: $11k
Roadmap
- **General smart contract development**
- **Ecosystem**
- **Tools**
- **People**
- **Audit Reports**
- **Networking**
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Articles
Thank you for reading through my article. There are many resources out there these are just a few of them. You can leave a comment or a suggestion and we can connect more on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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