Blockchain technology is taking the world by storm. Furthermore, there are no indications that this trend will halt, as decentralization grows increasingly popular. Blockchain technology is what underpins this decentralization and what makes it possible to build powerful dApps (decentralized applications). Decentralized applications, Web3 apps, and DeFi apps all require developers, however. This is why it’s more important today than ever to learn how to become a blockchain developer. Take part in shaping the future of the internet by becoming a blockchain developer. Best of all, Moralis allows you to transition to blockchain development in no time!
With the blockchain sector’s rapid rate of growth, dApp development is more important than ever. As such, this article provides you with all information and tips regarding the fundamentals of blockchain development and how to become a blockchain developer.
One of the most time-consuming aspects of blockchain development is backend development. Developing a complete backend infrastructure takes both time and resources; however, programmers no longer have to build this infrastructure from scratch when building wih Moralis. Moralis is the number one Web3 operating system, enables Web3 development, and does all the heavy Web3 lifting for you.
So, if you are looking to become a blockchain developer, make sure to check out and join Moralis right away! Joining the platform will provide you with access to the backend infrastructure along with tools such as the Moralis NFT and Price API, Moralis Speedy Nodes, and much more. Moreover, Moralis offers the ultimate NFT API with deep integration with all other Moralis features, like BEP20 token development, NFT programming, how to build Ethereum dApps, and much more.
What are dApps?
Decentralized applications, or dApps, are some of the most prominent features of the blockchain industry. These Web3 applications share many commonalities with traditional applications; however, as the name suggests, one characteristic separating the two is decentralization. The decentralized nature of these applications originates from the various blockchains on which the dApps are built. As such, blockchain technology is one of the most vital components that enables the decentralization of applications.
Essentially, this further means that dApps come equipped with Web3 functionality and that the backend code of these applications runs on a “P2P” (peer-to-peer) network. Furthermore, another distinction between apps and dApps is that the latter has the ability to implement an internal token economy. This is highly beneficial since tokens can incentivize users to grow and market the platform. Moreover, we can also use tokens as a governance mechanism, ensuring that the platform develops as the users see fit. As such, the use cases of a token economy are multifaceted, meaning that it can be beneficial from many perspectives.
Decentralized applications, and decentralization in general, provide a multitude of advantages for consumers and developers. One of the most pressing issues in today’s system is centralization, as it results in problems with both censorship and a single point of failure. However, these issues are avoidable with blockchain and dApps since it’s a spread-out system across nodes in various networks. This further means that dApps have the potential to disrupt and revolutionize the world as we see it today.
These applications consist of three main parts that we need to be aware of to get involved in dApp development:
- Smart Contracts
- Frontend
- Backend
As such, we’re going to take a closer look at these three components in the following sections.
How to Become a Blockchain Developer
Now that we know a little bit more about what dApps and their components are, we are in the following sections going to take a look at the three main elements of dApp development: smart contracts, frontend, and backend development.
We’ll start by taking a closer look at developing smart contracts and what skills and tools are necessary during the development process of these contracts. After this, we’re going to continue by looking at both the frontend and backend development. From a traditional perspective, backend development has always been the most challenging and time-consuming part of dApp development. However, this is no longer the case when using Moralis.
As such, when we look closer at the backend development of dApps, we’ll focus on Moralis and how this platform allows us to develop dApps more seamlessly. Moreover, if you’d rather watch a video explaining what skills and tools are necessary for blockchain development, then check out the following video from Moralis’ YouTube channel:
Nonetheless, let’s start this tutorial on how to become a blockchain developer by diving deeper into smart contracts.
How to Become a Blockchain Developer – What are Smart Contracts?
Smart contracts are a crucial part of blockchain development and critical when developing dApps. Smart contracts aren’t hard to grasp as a concept, and essentially, they are agreements between two parts written in code. So, for example, on Ethereum’s blockchain, smart contracts are programs that run on the native blockchain. This program contains two main features: 1) the contract’s functions and 2) the contract’s state or its data. This information and data then reside on a specific address on the Ethereum blockchain.
Furthermore, a smart contract is also a particular type of account on Ethereum’s blockchain. Therefore, just like any other account, they can hold funds and make transactions. However, what differentiates these from traditional accounts is the fact that no user controls them. As such, the contract code decides what happens, meaning that they function as they are programmed.
A common analogy here is that smart contracts are digital vending machines but a tiny bit more complex. This means that someone inputs funds, the contract then decides if it’s enough to execute a function, and if it is, the contract provides something in return. By following this logic, smart contracts are seen as regular contracts with the ability to enforce the terms of the agreement through its code.
Moreover, to write the contracts, test if they work, and deploy them to a blockchain, a few tools need to be utilized to make the process possible and more accessible. For example, to create smart contracts, it is necessary to master the programming language of Solidity. Furthermore, other useful tools are Remix, Truffle, and Ganache.
What is Solidity?
Now that we have a better understanding of smart contracts, we can move on and learn how to create one, but first, we need to understand Solidity and its programming language, which is used to write smart contracts. So, what is Solidity?
Solidity is an object-oriented programming language used to write EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible smart contracts. Furthermore, Solidity is also considered the first contract-oriented programming language since it’s specifically designed for creating smart contracts. Moreover, even though it is aligned with smart contract development, the language does have similarities and influences from other languages, such as JavaScript and C++. This means that prior knowledge of these two examples will help you and make it easier to learn Solidity.
Moreover, we mentioned that Solidity is the first contract-oriented language, and this essentially means that it comes with built-in commands that make blockchain development easier. For example, it’s possible to access the timestamps of a particular block or an address on various chains.
Whenever a contract is finalized and settled in Solidity, the code is compiled into EVM’s bytecode. This means that Solidity smart contracts are compatible with other chains utilizing the EVM. As such, we can use Solidity’s programming language for more than Ethereum development since it works on, for example, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon. For this reason, learning Solidity won’t limit you to Ethereum’s ecosystem. Consequently, you can utilize your skills with other chains – as Moralis is a top Infura for BSC and Infura for Avalanche alternative.
Remix
So, now that we know what Solidity is, let’s explore some additional tools that can help during development, with Remix being one of them. Remix is an IDE, or integrated development environment, adapted for Solidity development, and it’s highly useful and user-friendly. First of all, once the web application is launched for the first time, there will be a default workspace. Here you’ll find a pre-built structure already built that you can draw inspiration from and look at some contract examples.
Furthermore, Remix also has two additional useful tabs: one for compiling contracts and one for deploying them onto a blockchain. As such, once you complete your Solidity contracts, you can both compile and deploy the contracts to a chain directly through Remix with the click of a button. So, for this reason, it’s great to use Remix if you are new to smart contracts development since it’s easy to get going with the platform.
Truffle
Truffle is one component of the “Truffle Suite” ecosystem along with Ganache, which we’ll explore in the following section. However, Truffle is the development environment, testing framework, and asset pipeline of Truffle Suite. This is a vastly popular development framework for Ethereum development, and it makes smart contract development more accessible to users.
The framework offers a selection of great features to aid the development process. Some examples are smart contract management, automated contract testing, scriptable migration and deployment, network management, and an interactive console.
All these features are helpful when developing smart contracts, so if you’re interested, then we highly recommend checking out Truffle. For example, you can read more about the complete Truffle Suite ecosystem at Moralis’ blog.
Ganache
The final element worth checking out is Ganache, which is a component of the Truffle Suite ecosystem. Ganache allows you as a developer to set up your own local Ethereum-based blockchain. It’s then possible to utilize this local chain throughout the complete development process, making it a highly valuable tool. Moreover, the main reason for this is that a local chain allows us to test and develop dApps deterministically.
Using a local blockchain has two main benefits: it allows us to save time and money. If we were to use Ethereum’s mainnet throughout the process, we would need to wait for the contract to deploy to the blockchain and pay a gas fee for all transactions. It’s possible to avoid this with a local chain since we don’t need to wait for the confirmation of a block. Furthermore, transactions are free since we’re working with “fake” ETH when paying for the gas fees.
So, if you want to start developing dApps and smart contracts, check out Ganache, as it will help you save substantial resources. Furthermore, there are actually other alternatives to Ganache, such as Hardhat, which is also worth taking a look at.
How to Become a Blockchain Developer – Frontend and Backend Development
Now, with a better understanding of how and what we need to build smart contracts, we can move on by taking a closer look at both the frontend and backend development parts of dApps. In the case of frontend development, the process doesn’t differ too much compared to Web2 development. As such, it’s possible to utilize the same tools and languages, meaning that knowledge of, for example, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS are valuable skills when developing the frontend for dApps.
Backend development has been, at least from a traditional perspective, the most cumbersome task of Web3 development and takes up most of the developers’ time. However, with Moralis in the picture, it has become an uncomplicated and straightforward process.
Backend development for dApps revolves much around fetching information from various blockchains and utilizing the data. Setting up the proper infrastructure to deal with this is complex and time-consuming. For example, we need functions enabling dApps to authenticate users, fetch information about the users, store information in a database, and so on. However, this is exactly what Moralis provides for its users.
The platform provides an already developed backend infrastructure, which means that you don’t have to ”reinvent the wheel”, so to speak. As such, it’s possible to utilize pre-built Moralis functions to fetch information, sync smart contacts, and much more. This means that Moralis makes backend and frontend development more accessible.
However, this only covers some of the many useful ways in which Moralis can aid in backend development. For more information, check out Moralis’ documentation for a full breakdown of all its features.
How to Become a Blockchain Developer — Summary
There are three main components regarding dApp development:
- Smart Contracts
- Frontend
- Backend
Therefore, to create a dApp, we need to grasp these concepts and develop the necessary skills to execute them.
For smart contract development, we need knowledge of Solidity’s programming language. So, if you want to learn Solidity, you should check out Ivan on Tech Academy’s course called “Ethereum 101”, where you’ll learn to program using Solidity. In addition, on Moralis’ YouTube channel, you can find a Solidity series that’ll give you a nice introduction to the programming language.
Furthermore, as blockchain development is decentralized by nature, there is a lot of open-source code. This means that it isn’t completely necessary to know how to develop smart contracts since many of them already exist for us to use when developing dApps.
However, it’s necessary to know how to develop the frontend and backend of a dApp. Therefore, JavaScript is an essential skill that you should learn to be able to develop dApps. As such, make sure to enroll in Ivan on Tech Academy’s course called “JavaScript Programming for Blockchain Developers”.
Moreover, the most essential tool for dApp development is Moralis, as this allows you to avoid the heavy lifting, letting you focus on the frontend, which provides a far quicker route to market for your dApps. As such, you can utilize the platform to develop dApps quickly and easily and therefore save valuable resources.
As such, if you want to become a blockchain developer, sign up with Moralis today. Signing up is completely free, and you’ll receive full access to Moralis’ completely managed backend infrastructure along with the tools of the platform!
