Should I Start a Developer Career in Web3?

The short answer is yes. Blockchains are still popular, and there is a high demand for developers in the industry right now. Aside from the excellent pay, it is also a very interesting field to work in.

If you want to be a part of this and advance your career as a Web 3.0 developer, a structured approach can greatly enhance your learning.

Let us provide you with a road map that will undoubtedly lead you to your destination.

Prerequisites

You should be familiar with JavaScript and web development in general. If you don’t, you should take a step back and first learn about web development.

There are numerous excellent courses and tutorials available. You’ll have no trouble finding good ones.

Learn the Basics of Blockchain

You must understand what you are working with. Blockchains are incredible pieces of technology, but they are not easy to learn. It will take some time to understand what you will later build on.

A good place to start is with this course, which thoroughly explains the concept of blockchains. Following these courses, you will have a general understanding of blockchain technology. This is an excellent foundation for your future studies.

Learn about Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are the mechanism for programming the blockchain. They are pieces of code that have been deployed to the chain and are written in a language that blockchain nodes can execute.

Smart contracts can handle everything from fungible and non-fungible tokens to the backend of your next decentralized app. However, they are not the same as the code you are used to writing. They’ll account for a significant portion of your future work, so get to know them thoroughly.

Learn How to Interface with the Blockchain

Decentralized apps are made up of two parts: your frontend and blockchain-based smart contracts. You must interface with the blockchain in order for your frontend to communicate with it.

This is where libraries come into play, and there are two popular options for interacting with blockchains that use the Ethereum API:

  • ethers.js
  • Web3.js

Choose one and master it. You will undoubtedly require it. From now on, it will be one of your most important tools.

Learn Solidity

There are numerous blockchains available, each with its own distinct method of constructing smart contracts.

Solidity, on the other hand, is the language of the Ethereum VM, which is embedded in many other blockchains. It will not only benefit you on Ethereum. It will also assist you in creating smart contracts on other chains.

By far the most job opportunities are available for solidity developers. Many companies are building or plan to build on Ethereum. It may be a long time before another blockchain reaches the level of adoption that Ethereum has.

Despite a few issues (the chain is currently overloaded), the community is actively working on shifting the consensus to Proof-of-Stake. When this occurs, all scaling issues will be resolved, and the adoption rate may increase even further. Until then, layer-2 solutions aid in chain scaling, so you won’t have to worry about your job or choice.

What you must understand in particular is how gas works and how each line of code you write in Solidity affects the price of execution of your smart contract. There is no getting around it. Unfortunately, some businesses aggressively optimize for gas consumption.

If you want to work in this industry, you must learn how to optimize your code. Because thorough optimization can save millions of dollars per year for a heavily used app or contract, it will be part of your job and a big part of some interviews.

Build your Portfolio

A project portfolio can be extremely beneficial in your job search. Build, build, build if you want to work in this field.

To give you an idea of what a project should include:

  • A frontend
  • A smart contract
  • Some (Solidity) code optimizations with comments explaining why
  • Unit tests for everything
  • A local test network setup
  • E2E tests that thoroughly test the contract
  • Continuous Integration
  • Continuous Staging Deployment
  • A Deployment to the official testnet

Apply

You can start your job search with all of your new skills and a portfolio.

Don’t be discouraged if it takes some time, especially if you don’t have a lot of industry experience. Some companies may try to recruit more experienced employees.

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here is not investment advice – it is provided for informational purposes only. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of EGG Finance. Every investment and all trading involves risk, so you should always perform your own research prior to making decisions. We do not recommend investing money you cannot afford to lose.