Since the big Bitcoin break-out to the mainstream in 2017, blockchain and distributed ledger technology have come to the forefront of technology conversations in a major way. Companies have had to grapple with blockchain intergation in their existing infrastructures, the number of blockchain startups around the global has expontentially increased and with all that so has the demand for blockchain developers.

Although its relatively new, getting started as a blockchain developer is not complex. Depending on your experience either as previous developer or if you have minimal previous development experience, in this post we will familiarize ourselves with some recommendations, hurdles and solutions to becoming a blockchain developer.

Types of Blockchain Developers

Before we dive into how to get started as a blockchain developer, we first need to cover the developer types available to choose from. Currently we have two broad options available:

• Core Protocol Developer: As a core protocol developer you'll mostly responsible for developing the architecture of a blockchain system, how its protocols should be designed, the design of consensus protocol and other high- level decisions and development related to blockchain technology.



• Blockchain Software Developer: As a blockchain software developer you're role includes building decentralized applications or Dapps through the development of smart contracts, Development of interactive front-end designs for Dapps, Backend development pertaining to Blockchain and even the supervision of the entire stack running their Dapps.

Fundamental Blockchain Programming Concepts

First things first, you will need to learn to code. Basic programming usually isn’t half as hard as people think and it’s a useful skill that can come in handy in all sorts of occupations and even day to day life.

Once you feel like you have a good grasp of programming and you can write almost anything, you'll need to improve on your theory and program design. As a blockchain developer, you'll need a combination of skills and concept awareness that will be super important to your success. These concepts include:

Cryptography

Cryptography is one of the key concepts you'll need to familiarize yourself with as a protocol or blockchain software developer. A lot of cryptographic methods like hash functions eg SHA256 and KECCAK256 are used in blockchain aside from asynchronous cryptography for generating digital signatures. Without understanding how these work, it is impossible to become a blockchain developer.

Data Structures

Secondly, you'll need an in-depth knowledge and applicative sense of the decentralized data structures used in blockchain networks. As blockchain developers we are constantly playing around and tweaking existing data structures like merkle trees, petrecia trees etc to meet their personal network requirements. Blockchain uses a plethora of data structures in conjunction with advanced cryptography to build a secure and immutable system. A knowledge about blockchain, without any knowledge of data structures, can only be deemed incomplete.

Blockhain Architecture

A blockchain developer should have an excellent understanding of blockchain, its working, and its architecture. Concepts like cryptographic hash functions, consensus, distributed ledger technology should be at the tip of their fingers.

Smart Contract Development

Smart Contracts have become a huge thing since the release of Ethereum. Now every blockchain tries to incorporate smart contract functionality into its system so that business logic can be easily applied on the blockchain. Hence, developers striving to get into the blockchain field should definitely learn about smart contract development. This generally entails learning network specific languages like Solidity, Viper, Chaincode etc.

Web Development

Web development is a core aspect of a blockchain developer. When a person begins his career as a blockchain developer in the industry, a majority of them are employed for the basic designing of decentralized applications. This means you must know the basics of both front-end and back-end development which includes things like creating interactive graphical user interfaces for Dapps, API handling, request handling etc.

Path To Getting Started

Now, that you are familiar with key blockchain programming concepts, you're ready to jump straight into development. The simplest way to get started is by development a decentralized application on existing blockchain networks.

To get started as blockchain software developer follow these few steps:

• Pick A Blockchain Network: You don't need to know every blockchain. Actually, you should focus on the a few blockchain technologies of your choice and minimize the distractions from others. Some of the popular dapp development networks include Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS and more.
• Learn About Existing Dapps: Once you have picked a network to build on, he next step would be to get more familiar with what kind of applications developers are building on it. A great way to discover popular Dapps is to visit a Dapp list website. The most famous Dapp list websites are StateOfTheDapps and DappRadar.
• Learn Development Tools & Libraries: When developing smart contracts and dapps, you will need to learn and work with several development tools and libraries including Solc, Web3, Remix, Truffle Suite, and Ganache.
• Build Your Own Dapp: There's no better way to learn than by doing. In order to build your own Dapp, you need to build a webapp, a backend deployed on private servers and a Smart contract. These 3 parts must communicate which each other for maximum functionality of your dapp.

Conclusion

There will never be a better time to enter the blockchain world as a contributor. Everyone on the inside is still learning about the technology and the chance to make a difference is very real. Happy Building!