Introduction
To get ahead in the industry and advance their current systems and make new implementations. It is one of the fastest-growing sectors. Every company in the country is trying to adopt blockchain and cryptocurrency. Blockchain will be in high demand in 2021 because it is the fundamental premise that allows cryptocurrencies to function. As blockchain is an emerging concept, no one can be master every blockchain developing skill. But first, let us understand what a blockchain developer does.
The role of a blockchain developer is to handle all the life cycles of a blockchain application and is responsible for the research and execution of the application. They optimize the protocols, create the architecture of the system and make smart contracts. A blockchain engineer helps a blockchain developer in his tasks. There are two kinds of blockchain developers: blockchain software developers and core blockchain developers, but they share different responsibilities.Â
You can take a blockchain software developer as a web developer. A web developer develops web applications by using the products of a web architect, while a blockchain software developer builds applications based on blockchain architect and protocol. To create Dapps or Decentralized applications, they are responsible for both the front-end and back-end development of the Dapps. The supervision of the stack that runs the Dapps is also included in their responsibility.Â
The role of the core blockchain developer is to look at the development of the architecture of a blockchain system, design their consensus protocol and make vital decisions that are related to blockchain. Their additional responsibility is to supervise the network and look after the security of their blockchain network.
Following are listed some of the skills that are essential for a blockchain developer.
Cryptography
It is the study of protocols that prevents unwanted parties from accessing your data. As discussed above, blockchain plays an important role in cryptography, so one who wants to be a blockchain developer must be aware of the essential concepts in cryptography as you will require them during blockchain development. One of the crucial topics of blockchain is public-key cryptography, as it is the basis of the transaction that is done through cryptocurrencies. One of the prerequisites of the transaction of cryptocurrencies is the wallet and its key. The key is essential as it proves your ownership of the wallet. With the help of the encryption and decryption of the public and private keys, the transaction of cryptocurrencies occurs.
One of the crucial topics in cryptography is cryptographic hashing. Taking input of any length and generating output of a specific length is known to be hashing. For example, the information embedded in the hash function can vary between 20 characters to 200 characters, but the generated output is of the length you have chosen. With the knowledge of cryptography, you will be able to keep the data of the blockchain safe.
Types of cryptography
- Symmetric-key Cryptography – It is a type that relies on an encrypted approach and uses a unique key. This key is used in both the encryption and decryption processes. When we use a unique standard key, the key from the sender to the recipient is passed safely. It is also known as Secret-key Cryptography.
- Hash function – it is an encoding without the need for a key. Using a cipher, a hash code is generated from the data. It is a bit difficult to derive the meaning of the text from the ciphertext. For example, the commonly used hashing method in blockchain as a hash function is SHA- 256. It is an essential part of connecting the blocks and safeguarding the legitimacy of the information that is kept in the block
- Asymmetric-key Cryptography – a pair of keys are used in this process: an encrypted key and a decrypted key. These keys are generated by an algorithm that is obtained by the same process. These are referred to as public and private keys accordingly. It is also named Public-key Cryptography.
Smart Contracts
Smart Contracts became highly popular and well known when the Etherenum landed in the industry. Nowadays, every blockchain solutions want to use the Smart Contact for their benefits as the goods or services of the two parties are exchanged without an intermediator.
You can think of smart contracts as a vending machine where everything from the payment to the product and the remaining change takes place between you and the vending machine. The work is only completed when the parties that are involved fulfill the conditions. Hundreds of users are monitoring your Smart Contracts, and there is a risk of an error as they work on an IF-Then basis.
We can also implement Smart Contracts in other fields such as law, construction, etc., which would save money and resources as there won’t be any middleman included. Multiple languages such as Chaincode and Viper focuses on smart contracts. The decentralized structure of a blockchain is responsible for the productivity of smart contracts.
Data structures
One of the roles of a blockchain developer is to build networks and implement them and work with various data structures regularly, so an understanding of data structure is crucial to becoming a blockchain developer.
A blockchain block can be named a container data structure as it clusters transactions for the public ledger, where we can name a public ledger as a blockchain. Learning about the data structure is like learning the basics of the blockchain.
The information is saved in a block (container data structure). The encrypted identification of a transmitter and recipient is stored in a digital encoding block. A league of e-commerce operations includes the characteristics of the sellers and buyers. The container data structure has a hash. Whenever any modification is made, the hash will modify. In simple words, the block modification is identified by a hash.
Architecture of blockchain
To become a blockchain developer, one must be aware of the architecture of the blockchain and its related terms like what is a ledger in blockchain, consensus, etc. There are three kinds of blockchain architecture.
- Consortium architecture – The architecture of the consortium is not wholly decentralized, and the members of the group have full authority. This is done the group is made up of multiple organizations. Example – Energy web foundation.
- Private architecture – in this, only a few people are part of the system. Within the organization, it is a popular application (Example: sawtooth and Fabric). They are not decentralized as consortium architecture.
- Public architecture- it is decentralized as consortium architecture. To become a part of this, you have to be a part of the network by mining or making transactions—for example – bitcoin. You will have to be familiar with the fundamentals and the advanced concepts altogether. This can be done by reading the whitepaper of bitcoin on a blockchain.
Languages to follow
Java
As Java can develop complex solutions and is easy to learn, it is quite popular among developers. Mastering the data is crucial for blockchain development, and Java can help you with this. For example – NEM (Popular cryptocurrency based on JJava)
C++
It is a must-know language for any emerging blockchain developer as many tasks related to a blockchain can be performed. For example – the bitcoin core is created by C++.
Python
We can use it both as a front-end and back-end development because it is versatile and has various libraries. And is also one of the most popular languages in today’s era.
You can also work on other languages as a blockchain developer must work on multiple languages.
Interoperability
It is the ability to view and collect information across various blockchain systems. We can achieve interoperability between the blockchains like Bitcoin and Etherum by making the data capacity transfer easier. We can accomplish this by using APIS (APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE). One plus point of using the APIS is that there is no need for a management structure to be accessible and convenient. One of the best strategies to facilitate interoperability is developing a data format as soon as feasible.
Web development
As mentioned above, we can think of a blockchain developer as a web developer as he also has to create robust web apps that use blockchain technology. To develop better Dapps, you have to grasp the web design development and programming of the apps. If you wish to enhance your web development skills, you can take up a front end developer course online free and learn more.
