Hmmm, thank goodness you found this blog post. I’m sure by now you’ve toured half the internet searching for an easier way to get started in the blockchain industry as a developer. I get it looks complicated, sounds technical, and can feel overwhelming trying to piece everything together.

That’s exactly why I decided to share my experience to give you a simpler, clearer path into blockchain development and hopefully inspire your own journey.

Like Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

So before we dive into my personal story, let’s first understand what blockchain really is, and why it was invented in plain, beginner-friendly terms.

🔗 WHAT AND WHY BLOCKCHAIN?

Let’s take a scenario. When you think of a bank, you think about monetary records of people who own accounts i.e., a ledger or journal, although a bit advanced these days with the invention of computers. These ledgers are owned and controlled by these banks. What happens if there’s a fire outbreak and all the financial records become historical ashes (not the cricket trophy, LOL 🤭)? I mean actual ashes.

Of course, we would not know who owns what. This is one of the reasons blockchain was invented a “distributed/decentralized ledger,” not owned or controlled by a single entity or enterprise.

These ledger records are distributed in the sense that they are stored on several computers around the globe called “nodes,” each having the same copy of the ledger.

In today’s world where ledgers are no longer used, it can be likened to a distributed or decentralized database.

But you may ask, why then is it called a blockchain and not just a decentralized database? Well, instead of storing user transactions or data in rows and columns as banks would do, transactions or data are bundled into small units called “blocks.” And unlike pages of a ledger linked together by glue and referencing each other in the head of the documents, each block is linked together by “hashes”; a fixed-length string that represents the data contained in the block and the next block combined together.

Enough of the jargon. Back to my experience diving into blockchain development. There are different blockchains, each solving a particular problem e.g., Bitcoin (removes the need for financial intermediaries like banks), Ethereum (eliminating the need for third parties in agreements through smart contracts), Cardano, Midnight (a privacy-centered blockchain), Avalanche, etc.

🤯 MY EXPERIENCE DEVELOPING ON ETHEREUM

For me, I started with Ethereum not because it was easy to learn, but because it was one of the most popular at the time and still is. Development on Ethereum introduced the concept of smart contracts, which is now an integral part of every blockchain.

In fact, smart contracts are what make modern blockchains usable. They are “self-executing” programs or code you write and deploy to the blockchain just like you would on AWS or Vercel with an application you just finished building. They execute themselves when the conditions you define within the contract are met. Like any other application (web or mobile), they have to be coded using a programming language. For Ethereum, I had to learn “Solidity.”

Solidity was difficult for me to catch up with, as it had a syntax (language writing pattern) that looked like C++ and JavaScript combined. Being a newbie in programming who only had knowledge of web development-centered languages like JavaScript, a bit of TypeScript (a subset of JavaScript), and frontend frameworks like React as at the time, I became overwhelmed.

I had to learn how to manage memory usage while writing Solidity code, structs, maps, etc. After a while, I knew I was not just ready for it and had to go back to where I came from 😄, web development. Still with the intent of learning blockchain, but with a failed attempt.

💡WHAT CHANGED?

Eventually, I came across a sidechain built on the Cardano blockchain called Midnight. Unlike every other blockchain, its language is so easy to learn, and it solves a key pain point in blockchain, decentralization without compromising users’ privacy. On most blockchains, everything is public, including user assets, details, and confidential information.

Midnight blockchain solves this by ensuring users’ private data is secure and allowing them to choose when to share their info, while still maintaining the decentralized nature expected from every blockchain.

Most importantly, its smart contract language is really easy to learn. It’s just like TypeScript. That’s to say, if you know TypeScript, you can dive straight in and start developing on Midnight. The language is called Minokawa (formerly Compact). It uses data types similar to arrays, objects, functions, and strings in TypeScript. Except that it differs slightly in how you write them.

This was when I knew I had found the right spot for me to master and experience what developing on the blockchain feels like without having to learn an entirely strange programming language. Believe me, in less than 3 months I had learned how to write complex smart contracts just because I knew TypeScript. Its ecosystem is enriched with great minds building and collaborating on both individual projects and hackathons (two of which I have won) all in the quest to improve the ecosystem.

WHAT I RECOMMEND ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

While choosing a blockchain to start developing on depends on the programming languages and concepts one is already familiar with, I would recommend Midnight Blockchain.

Why? Because if you’re someone like me coming from a web or mobile development background, you already know JavaScript. This means you can easily learn TypeScript in less than a month and transition into blockchain development on Midnight.

Everyone’s blockchain journey is different, but the key is to start where you are and build from what you already know.

That’s what helped me find my path and hopefully, this helps you find yours too.

Want to checkout Midnight? Here’s a glimpse of what it feels like writing smart contracts! https://docs.midnight.network/develop/reference/compact/writing

Stay curious. Keep building. The future is decentralized. ✨