Blockchain, being the revolutionary technology that it is, has obviously opened up a new field of development called blockchain development. This, in turn, has created numerous job opportunities for developers and tech enthusiasts. Even with such fantastic job opportunities around, people generally seem to be confused about the direction they should take to become a blockchain developer. Hence, I decided to write up this article to guide fellow blockchain enthusiasts into the world of blockchain development
Okay, let me just list out the topics I’ll be addressing in this article:
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Who is a Blockchain Developer?
In the past few years, I’ve actually been asked this question on numerous occasions as to “who exactly is a blockchain developer and what kind of development is he concerned with?” Well, I guess it’s easy to get confused, with so many types of developers out there in the industry. So let’s remove this confusion by actually defining a blockchain developer…
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Basically, any developer that is involved in the development of blockchain technology can be tagged as a blockchain developer. Now blockchain developers can be classified into two distinct types. Let’s take a moment to discuss both these types.
Types of Blockchain Developers
As I just specified, there are two types of blockchain developers, namely:
- Core Blockchain Developers
- Blockchain Software Developers
Core blockchain developers are 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 developers, on the other hand, use the architecture and protocols designed by Core Blockchain developers to build decentralized applications that run on blockchain technology.
Now that we know the types of blockchain developers, let me tell you guys about their respective roles in the industry.
Roles of a Blockchain Developer
Let’s first discuss the roles of a core blockchain developer.
Core Blockchain Developer
As discussed earlier, a core blockchain developer is generally involved in the design, architecture, and security of a blockchain system. In brief, their roles include the following:
- Design of blockchain protocols
- Design of consensus protocols and security patterns for the network
- Design of the network architecture
- Supervision of the entire network
Blockchain Software Developer
Blockchain Software Developers have a separate set of roles. These roles have nothing to do with consensus design or architecture of the system. Much like how a normal web developer uses the protocols and design structure set up by a core web architect to build web apps, blockchain software developers build decentralized applications or Dapps using blockchain technology. Their roles include:
- Development of Smart Contracts
- Development of interactive front-end designs for Dapps
- Backend development pertaining to Blockchain
- Supervision of the entire stack running their Dapps
Now that, I’ve told you guys about the different types of blockchain developers and their respective roles, let me tell you guys about the technical knowledge and skills required for you to bootstrap your career as a blockchain developer.
Technical Skills Required to Become a Blockchain Developer
When talking about a blockchain developer, a combination of skills is expected by the person. Let’s discuss them one by one.
Blockchain 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. The best way to get yourself familiarised with blockchain technology is to go through the bitcoin blockchain whitepaper, but going through the complete white paper can be a tedious task and a little guidance always helps boost the learning curve. Hence you could sign up for edureka’s Blockchain course
Data Structures
Secondly, an in-depth knowledge and applicative sense of data structures is a necessity when aiming to become a blockchain developer. Blockchain developers 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.
Cryptography
As I just mentioned, Blockchain is a conjunction of data structures and advanced cryptography, hence it is only obvious that a good grasp on cryptography is also required to become a blockchain 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.
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.
Now that I’ve told you people, the skills required to become a blockchain developer, let’s see the companies highering blockchain developers.
Companies Hiring Blockchain Developers
So if you think if you have what it takes to become a blockchain developer, then it’s a pretty golden time for you because opportunities are thriving. For every five blockchain developer related job in the industry, there is only one eligible blockchain developer available. Many fortune 500 companies like IBM, Accenture, Capgemini are on the hunt for eligible blockchain developers.
Not only are there endless opportunities for blockchain developers in the current age, but also they have handsome salaries to go along with the jobs too. A core blockchain developer on an average makes around $100,000 annually while blockchain software developers make $70,000 per annum.
So folks, that was all about how to become a blockchain developer. Now go ahead and master the skills mentioned above to get into blockchain development.
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