Becoming a Blockchain Developer: What New Skills to Learn and Foster?

Blockchain technology has successfully transitioned into the mainstream consciousness and is steadily becoming one of the fastest-growing sectors in the landscape as of the moment. Companies are starting to look into how they can integrate blockchain technology into their processes and reap the benefits it brings. If you’re planning to do a career shift, now’s the best time to start developing some skills that could prove to be desirable in the eyes of IT staffing agencies and tech companies.

What is a Blockchain Developer?

A blockchain developer is regarded as someone with a strong mix of skills in areas like data structures, cryptography, computer networking, and algorithms. It is also expected that they have experience with a specific type of blockchains like Ethereum or Bitcoin. 

Blockchain developer skills are a combination of hard skills and soft skills from an abstract point of view. To start your journey in learning a new in-demand skill set, you should start looking into what skills are needed to become a blockchain developer. As such, here’s a few of them to give you a little head start in your career:

Cryptography

In its essence, cryptography is the study of protocols that help in preventing unwanted parties from accessing your data. It is practically what determines a large part of a blockchain, how it performs, and how attractive it is to businesses that are trying to implement it. Therefore, when you study cryptography and its implementation through coding, you must understand how to tailor the code to get the most secure working system possible. 

Smart Contract Development

A smart contract is a popular term in the blockchain industry, and almost every blockchain solution in existence uses it for its benefit. Basically, smart contracts allow two parties to exchange goods and services without needing an intermediary. It is a self-executing contract that also has its own set of terms stating the agreement between the two parties. The only difference is, instead of a PDF file or a piece of paper, the contract is written directly into lines of code. Studying smart contract development typically entails learning network-specific programming languages.

Data Structures

Blockchain developers work with various data structures on a daily basis as they have to build networks and implement them. Data structures are what make up a blockchain network and are actually what form its foundation. If you want to become a blockchain developer, this is an invaluable skill to learn. This is one of the basics that you should really focus on if you’re going to move up to more advanced concepts in blockchain development.

Web Development

In most cases, a blockchain developer will also be creating web apps to integrate with blockchain technology. You’ll probably be asked to build a series of robust web apps that use blockchain technology at its core. This means, you are expected to have a more rounded understanding of web design, development, and app programming.

Conclusion

Blockchain is still a relatively new type of technology and is still in its infancy. While companies are still finding out how they can utilize the blockchain to improve their systems and processes, you should take it as an opportunity to learn new skills that could help you transition into the role of a blockchain developer.

At Technical Paradigm, we believe in using a strategic approach when it comes to hiring the right people for the job. We are a full-service provider of IT staffing solutions to help companies get the right kind of talent and IT professionals get the role they are looking for. Partner with us today, and let us start fulfilling your IT staffing requirements.