Beginners Guide to Web3

This guide provides a starting point for developers who’re keen to learn more about Web3

Blockchain has emerged from the once shadowy world of cryptocurrency to become the most in-demand skill in 2020, according to LinkedIn. The promise of blockchain is huge. And large companies are continuing to hire and expand their blockchain teams, incl. Facebook, Amazon, Microsft, EY, Deloitte, IBM, and Oracle, to name a few. So, it should be well worth the effort to become familiar with how blockchain works, and what its perceived benefits are, and as a developer start building on top of them.

Over the past few years, I’ve been helping and onboarding new team members and developers into the blockchain space. This helped me to collect blogs, links, materials, and resources and see which worked well for everyone’s learning journey. It’s time to share that with a broader audience. This guide provides a starting point for developers who’re keen to learn more about blockchain and development on top of Ethereum. It will be opinionated and not contain a full list of everything available. But rather, a concise list of highly recommended options, from my own experiences.

1. Blockchain foundations
2. Ethereum 101
3. Ethereum Development, Smart contracts & DApps

1. Blockchain foundations

New to blockchain? Let’s start with a bit of the history and its foundations that motivated the creation and development of blockchain.

• A Cyberphunk’s Manifesto, Eric Hughes
• Why decentralization matters, Chris Dixon
• The Promise of the Blockchain (VIDEO), Vinay Gupta
• The shift from open platforms to digital commons, David Bollier
• Deconfusing decentralization (VIDEO), Greg Slepak

2. Ethereum 101

Now that we have an understanding of where we’re coming from, let’s dive in a little bit deeper into the fundamental components & building blocks.

• Bitcoin Whitepaper, Satoshi Nakamoto – the original whitepaper that started the current trend in blockchain technology: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
• Ethereum Whitepaper, Vitalik Buterin – a next-generation smart contract & decentralized application platform
• Ethereum Yellowpaper, Gavin Wood – a more technical version of the Ethereum whitepaper
• Smart Contracts, Nick Szabo
• Ethereum in 25 mins (VIDEO), Vitalik Buterin
• How does Ethereum work, anyway, Preethi Kasireddy
• Mastering Ethereum (BOOK), Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Gavin Wood. Or view it on GitHub

3. Ethereum Development

Once you’ve gone through all (or at least most) of the above, you should have a solid grasp of all the concepts. So now we can finally move on to the fun part: actually building stuff!

To get a full, comprehensive overview of the Ethereum development landscape, check out:

• Ethereum Developers
• The full ConsenSys developer tool list

The Ethereum portal covers sections per programming language, to help you filter out what’s relevant for you. Though JavaScript is most commonly used, I’d start with something that you’re already familiar with, to flatten the learning curve. Use the above only for future reference. As mentioned previously, I’m trying to keep it simple and offer a few recommended options, from my own experiences. Feel free to discover, try, and learn everything from the developer portals, once you’ve covered these.

 

View More