In this post, we will talk about the blockchain development roadmap.
Today, we will see a step-by-step roadmap of blockchain development explained simply.
After reading the blog post, you can be clear about blockchain development.
Blockchain Development
As I will be covering everything in this post.
Today we will talk about what the best resources are and how much it will take.
The future of blockchain and cryptocurrency is very high in demand.
We will be discussing everything, whether you guys should do it or not, for blockchain development.
We will also be discussing the tools that you would need to learn and how you can learn them.
I have learned blockchain development myself, so I will guide you properly on this topic.
Also, I will be motivating you as to why you should do blockchain development
As I will tell you which companies hire blockchain developers and what packages they offer, and how those packages are better as compared to the ones for normal developers.
We can ensure that this tour is going to be amazing. So let’s start.
First of all, let’s talk about
What is blockchain?
If you guys don’t know what a blockchain is, then let me quickly summarize it for you.
because you should know about blockchain before learning its roadmap.
In today’s post, we won’t be discussing blockchain but blockchain development,
but, let me quickly tell you what a blockchain is in case you don’t know what it is.
So, blockchain basically is a chain of blocks.
Now, what does a block have?
A block has data inside it which tells us that a blockchain is a database.
Just like you have a sequel database, MongoDB database; blockchain is also a database.
Meanwhile, the data contained inside is saved in a peer-to-peer network rather than only in your node or machine.
which means that every person who has a node in it or machine which is in this network
Everyone has a database blueprint, so every time a new entry can enter into this database,
Afterward, the data synchronized across the whole node.
It goes to every node.
Things to remember
So, it means that if someone wants to make a change in this database,
then they will have to hack all the computers in that node to hack a single one of them,
which is an impossible task that is why we say that your data is unhackable and immutable
as you cannot go and change the data because of the structure of the block
as it has three things inside it; data, the hash of the data, and a hash of the previous data which results in a chain of blocks forming.
If you try to change the data inside any block, you will also change the hash of that block
Nowadays, the hash of the block has already changed.
Now it has not connected to the next block
If you want to connect it to the next block, then you will have to change the previous hash of the text block.
which in turn will change the data of the next block and its hash that will cause the change of data in the block next to that.
So it will be a long, tiring process, which is why we say that the data in the blockchain is immutable. You will have to do this process not only on that computer but also on the other computers that make this database so secure.
So, you can use this database where you think you need a robust and secure database.
However, later on, no one can change this.
For example
Cryptocurrency is the best example of it. Meanwhile, you want that once a transaction has happened, it should save first and no change should be there. So, bitcoin in cryptocurrency is the biggest example of the usage of blockchain.
After bitcoins, blockchain technology had a boom.
At Present, multiple other applications had made,
Multiple multinational companies are using it, like Microsoft, the World Bank, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, etc.
All of them are using blockchain in one way or another.
So, this was blockchain for you.
Now let’s talk about
Blockchain developers: what do they do?
So, there are two types of blockchain developers: one is a core blockchain developer and the other is an application blockchain developer.
A core blockchain developer is someone who makes blockchain clients. Now, what are blockchain clients?
There are multiple blockchain clients, like, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc.
There are hundreds of blockchain clients who are on the list.
I will also attach a few here.
So, those who work on these blockchain clients, on their protocols, on their proof of work, on their tax tech; basically, their core coding is in multiple languages such as C++, Golang, Rust, etc.
Although, those who are working on them.
Their protocols are famous among “core blockchain developers,”
who develops blockchain clients
And the other type, which is a blockchain application developer, consists of 90% of the blockchain developers out there.
Their responsibility is to create an application on the existing blockchain, which we call Decentralized Applications.
This is an application-type application that no one host on any central application.
But decentralized, which means it has access to every node.
So, these are usually the developers we talk about when we mention that a company needs some blockchain developers.
The companies are looking for blockchain application developers.
So, 90% of the developers are blockchain application developers. I hope you guys now understand what blockchain developers do.
Now, let’s talk about the companies that require them.
Multiple companies require them like Microsoft, Accenture, the World Bank, Cognizant,
Multiple small and big companies like these, Amazon, and even banking companies such as Morgan Stanley, and service sector companies use blockchain.
Also, these companies pay really well. For example, a normal developer unfamiliar with blockchain
High Paying job
A developer who knows about blockchain won’t get the same pay. A blockchain developer receives twice or thrice what a normal developer gets in some cases, and receives more benefits.
It is because the demand is greater than the supply, as a lot of companies these days demand blockchain developers, but not many people have knowledge of blockchain developers.
If India has 2 million developers, then only 5k of them have knowledge of blockchain development.
Plus you get to have a lot of chances to make passive income through blockchain development apart from jobs.
Like Flash Loans, you can also make trading bots, Defi-there is multiple ways to earn passive income and if I start listing all of them here it will take a lot of time, but I will list the resources in the description box below.
so you can check them for yourself and see how much scope they have.
A lot of people have started earning this these days. It is modern technology.
You might think about how you can do it and if it is difficult, but if you invest yourself in it properly, you can earn really well through it.
You guys must be finding it very intriguing, and rightly so.
So, the question arises of how we can learn it. Where can we learn it? and what resources are required.
Let me start with how much time you might need to learn it.
So around 3-6 months you would need if you want to become a good blockchain developer.
You would need to learn multiple things.
It will take you three months if you already have knowledge of web development.
And if you don’t have knowledge of web development, you might need 6 months.
It took me almost 2.5 to 3 months during which I also made some projects.
After that, I worked on a lot of projects in blockchain development.
So it will also take you around the same 3-6 months depending on how much time you are dedicating to it.
Now let’s talk about the prerequisites and what you would require before beginning blockchain development.
If your knowledge of mathematics and cryptography is strong, then it’s great for you.
If it’s not, then you can just learn them.
You would also need to have knowledge of the fundamentals of blockchain, how it works, and its underlying mathematics.
Even if you have a little bit of knowledge, then it’s fine as we don’t dig deep into mathematics in blockchain development,
but a certain level of knowledge of mathematics is good
and where you can learn that will be discussed later.
After that, let’s talk about web development. You will also need to know about web development for it.
In web development, you would need to have knowledge of Node.js because you are coding a server site in blockchain development.
Your blockchain is your back-end network, and the front-end which the user will interact with
You should also have knowledge of it.
Its front-end is usually web development. So creating websites and doing web development are required in it.
When we see that companies require a blockchain developer, we might notice that in their job description
they have mentioned that they need a full-stack blockchain developer.
Also, they need a blockchain developer and a full-stack who can do front-end as well as
They handle the connection between the front end and the blockchain and can write smart contracts on the solidity of the blockchain.
Which is why I am telling you that you should also have knowledge of the front-end because who will the user interact with? You will not tell the user that this is code, so interact with it or this is the back-end, interaction with it.
You need a front-end and for that, a web developer is required.
Now, let’s talk about the tools that you need to learn and how you can learn them.
Let’s go step by step.
The core of the blockchain is called smart contracts. The code written on the blockchain is called a smart contract.
Blockchain application developers create applications on the blockchain.
The applications that they make are decentralized applications and their code is written on smart contracts.
Those smart contracts are hosted on your blockchain, on that decentralized network.
And the code that you write is in a language called Solidity
So you would also need to learn Solidity
This Solidity language is almost like JavaScript but
there are also things that are different from JavaScript
The smart contract executes when a condition is triggered. For example, let’s suppose you need a code.
Through this, when a certain time has passed, a certain amount of money should be transferred from one account to another.
You want that this code to never change, so you can save such type of code in a smart contract and you will put it on your blockchain network.
So whenever that condition has hit let’s say, you have mentioned the 31st of every month, so whenever it will be the 31st of every month.
that condition will trigger and your code will execute and this is how your Smart Contracts are.
They are the backbone of our blockchain development and we have learned how to make them but
What do we do with these smart contracts? We will need to host them or deploy them.
On the blockchain network, we can host them on the Ethereum blockchain network, which is known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
but you don’t host it on the main Ethereum blockchain
because whenever you are developing something, you test it.
you want to test it on some testing hosting network to check if this smart contract is working or not.
When you are sure that this network is good and is ready to publish.
Then you deploy it on the main network, which is known as the Main Net of Ethereum because it costs you something to publish it there.
So you need a developing network, and for that, a tool comes in handy known as Ganache.
So, Ganache helps in setting locally Ethereum network.
There is the main Ethereum network, the blockchain of the main net, but let’s say you also need a small network on your laptop.
For testing purposes, you can make a replica of the Ethereum network on your laptop with the help of Ganache.
In Ganache, you can find ten testing accounts that will have 100 ethers in each of them, which has a lot of value in dollars.
But they are tasty, so they don’t have any value.
You get those in Ganache and through them, you can do testing.
Smart contracts you made
You can host them on these blockchain networks you made through Ganache.
You cannot directly host these smart contracts you would need to change them
The built-in tool that comes in handy here is called Truffle.
Basically sets a blockchain coding environment
You can find boilerplate codes here, and you can build and deploy smart contracts here on your blockchain network.
Using this tool, testing and deployment are both possible. It is a very good and useful tool that you need to be aware of.
So, now we know about Solidity, Ganache, and Truffle.
Your smart contracts have now been developed and deployed.
But how will your users interact with them?
The user needs a front-end, so you will also be making a website.
so that a user can interact with it.
Let’s suppose you have to make an app for online voting.
So making a front-end through which online voting can be done.
Now how will this front-end get in contact with the blockchain network as it will not contact directly?
So far that a library is required which is web3.js
Your front end can directly interface with your blockchain network with the web3 library.
so whatever operation that you need to do on your smart contracts you can do it through library web3.js
Now let’s suppose that this is your front-end and here is your whole blockchain environment setup.
It could be your locally set network or it could be hosted on your main network
It doesn’t matter.
need the front-end and the blockchain network to communicate
So for that, you need the help of the web3.js library.
Through this, you can communicate. Whatever changes you need to make or whatever function calls you need to have in your smart contract, you can execute them using this library.
How is blockchain network development carried out?
You used multiple tools here, you developed your front-end and, after that,
you used web3.js to connect them
This was your development now, how your end-user can connect with your front-end and can make the transaction
Since every action, you take in the blockchain is a transaction, no one can make transactions on it.
Your browsers do not support transactions directly on the Ethereum blockchain, and for that, they need a gateway, which is Metamask. It’s your gateway or you can say your wallet.
You can do Ethereum transactions on your web browser with its assistance.
So any transaction that you need to make, let’s suppose you have an Ethereum account that you have logged into in that extension and you have some others in it.
and now you want to purchase something by using them
or you won’t do any transactions.
or you want to do a transaction on the website that you made.
You can do all of this through Metamask, the extension.
any app you have created.
Whatever transaction you want the user has done with the help of the Metamask extension.
So every user needs to install it.
Overall, we have seen how the user interacts, how to connect the front end, how the interface will work, and how the back end will work.
The certain that your backend is prepared.
The smart contracts can be sent, finally, you’ll host it on Ethereum Main Net, your primary network.
Deploying there will charge something.
Others, because whenever a transaction takes place on the blockchain, you have to pay a fee for it.
however, the code is permanently saved.
It can’t be modified.
If you want to change it, you must do a new migration.
We always do migration whenever we need to make a change in the database, and we have to migrate your whole code there.
Your migration will be going into another block
Usually, the data in the previous migration has been erased and new data has been forwarded with a new code.
This is how your blockchain development works overall.
And after this, you can make multiple applications.
I have told you about this voting application.
But there are also multiple use cases these days. For example, if you want to store real-estate data,
You can use it there, also in the banking sector, in finance.
If you want to store medical records or music records, it helps there.
Any information that you think users should have direct access to
Although, there is no need for the middle man.
If the user has given his data, then he/she should have complete control over it
We completely omit the middleman or the 3rd party applications
So we use it for that purpose. This makes it a very fascinating technology
Now let’s talk about the resources which you can use to study blockchain.
Top most famous Blockchain Courses for 2022
Blockchain: Foundations and Use Cases
Blockchain Specialization
Python And The Blockchain Technology
Berkeley’s Blockchain Fundamentals Professional Certificate
Ethereum and Solidity: The Complete Developer’s Guide
Blockchain & Bitcoin Fundamentals
The Basics of Blockchain: Ethereum, Bitcoin, & More
Blockchain Fundamentals
There are some courses on Coursera and the first course is Blockchain Foundation and Use Cases.
This is a beginner’s level course. Following this, Coursera also offers a complete blockchain course.
You can check out that, I will add the link the below
Apart from this, there are a bunch of courses on Udemy as well.
