SkillRary

Blockchain technology is gradually revolutionizing the way the digital world handles data and does business. However, blockchain technology is more than just cryptocurrency, and it is already changing the way we see everything. Furthermore, in the past few decades, cryptocurrency and blockchains have taken the world by storm due to their immense potential, and most industries across the globe want to use them for their businesses.

Blockchain technology was initially designed to just support Bitcoin, but its high levels of versatility and security caught the attention of numerous businesses and government sectors who started using it in their day-to-day operations. This is why it makes sense to consider becoming a blockchain developer, as it has a lot of growth potential.

Blockchain refers to the secure and transparent ledger behind technologies such as cryptocurrency. A vague term just a few years ago, the technology and its capabilities are now more understood by businesses. It’s expanding business models, piloting projects and presenting new solutions to many companies. But to succeed, they require graduate talent.

Blockchain architectures predominantly focus on technology and less on business process simplification, so the business-led architecture is the key. Understanding business outcomes is crucial. Also, explore data flows and build direct connections between trading partners, suppliers and customers across the ecosystem. You want to rationalize the business architecture all the way through to the value chain and partner ecosystem.

There are two kinds of blockchain developers, namely blockchain software developers and core blockchain developers. Although they have different responsibilities, they are both involved in the development of blockchain.

1. Blockchain Software Developers

They help in building applications based on the architecture and protocol of a blockchain. Furthermore, their apps will run on the blockchain. You can compare blockchain software developers with web developers as they use a web architect’s products for developing web applications. Blockchain software developers also create decentralized applications or apps.

2. Core Blockchain Developers

Core blockchain developers focus mainly on the architecture development of a blockchain system. They are responsible for designing the consensus protocol, and they make most of the vital decisions related to blockchain. They also supervise the network and design blockchain architectures. A core blockchain developer is responsible for the security of his/her blockchain network.

Blockchain developers have several responsibilities, and it is important to have blockchain skills before you can become one. Some of the skills required for a blockchain developer are:

1. Cryptography

Cryptography is the study of protocols that help in preventing unwanted parties from accessing your data. There are numerous blockchain essentials for developers in cryptography that you should be familiar with because they are needed during blockchain development. For instance, a crucial topic of blockchain is public-key cryptography, as it forms the basis for any transactions made through cryptocurrencies.

Before making cryptocurrency transactions, you will need to have a wallet and a key to the wallet. The key is quite essential as it helps in proving the ownership of the wallet. Another important concept of cryptography for blockchain is cryptographic hashing.

Cryptography is clearly important for the proper workings of blockchain technology, which is why it is best to learn about its various aspects to be a blockchain developer.

2. Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are a popular term in the blockchain industry, and almost every blockchain solution uses smart contracts to its benefit. They allow two parties to exchange goods or services without the need for an intermediary. A smart contract will only finish after the parties involved fulfil both of their conditions.

Smart contracts can be used in many areas of numerous industries like construction, law, etc. This shows how important it is to be familiar with smart contracts before becoming a blockchain developer. Furthermore, multiple languages focus specifically on smart contract development like Viper and Chaincode.

3. Data Structures

Before becoming a blockchain developer, you will need to have extensive knowledge of data structures. This is because blockchain developers will regularly work with various data structures and then need to build networks and implement them. Furthermore, the entire blockchain network comprises of data structures.

Learning about data structures will help you to understand the basic concepts of blockchain. You can also understand the advanced concepts more quickly if you have a strong foundation in data structures.

4. Blockchain Architecture

As a blockchain developer, you need to be familiar with blockchain architecture. Furthermore, you should know what a blockchain ledger entails in blockchain, what consensus is, and the ways smart contracts work. There are three kinds of blockchain architecture: consortium architecture, private architecture, and public architecture.

As a blockchain developer, you can read this whitepaper on blockchain to discover more about this topic.

5. Web Development

In most cases, a blockchain developer will be developing web apps. Therefore, by learning about web development, you will know more about all the blockchain technology aspects, which you can then use to build robust web apps that use blockchain technology. You will also need to learn web design, development, and programming of apps, which can help you to develop better apps.

It is important that you know about web development as most organizations require that blockchain developers create apps that even people with minimal knowledge of blockchain can easily use.