Bullets of Blockchain

“Are you feeling like a fish out of water when it comes to understanding blockchain? Don’t worry; you’re not alone. With all the buzz surrounding this revolutionary technology, it’s natural for people to have questions on how to get started, what projects to look into, and how to level up their skills. This guide will answer all those questions in a simple and easy-to-digest format, so you can finally dive into the blockchain world with ease.”

Note: This guide covers a wide range of topics on blockchain technology. To make it easier to navigate, I’ve included an index that allows you to jump to specific sections of interest. Feel free to skip around and explore the areas that are most relevant to you.

INDEX :

1. Essential things you should do in the Blockchain journey.
2. Web3 lingo / Slang, Just to avoid the FOMO.
3. Resources to learn and hands-on.
4. Job roles in web3.
5. Few ideas to build projects.
6. Security and analysis tools for Smart contracts.
7. Significant Vulnerabilities in Smart Contract.
8. Understand Cryptoecnomics.

1. Load up the revolver and walk through the first road -

• Brush up on blockchain lingo like “distributed ledger technology” and “consensus algorithms” (just don’t tell your friends, they’ll think you’re a nerd)
• Learn to code like a pro in Solidity and other blockchain languages (Rust)(just don’t tell your boss, they’ll think you’re taking a break)
• Join the cool kids and become an Ethereum, Hyperledger, or Polkadot expert (just don’t tell your mom, she’ll think you’re wasting time on video games)
• Attend meetups and conferences, and network with other blockchain peeps (just don’t tell your significant other, they’ll think you’re trying to pick up people)
• Participate in hackathons and coding challenges; it will help you to improve your problem-solving skills and gain hands-on experience building blockchain-based applications (just don’t send the winning bounty to Elon musk to double it up)
• Work on open-source projects, contribute to blockchain communities, and gain experience working in a collaborative environment.
• Learn about the legal and regulatory aspects of blockchain technology, and understand the potential impact it may have on different industries (Gives you an upper hand and also sounds cool)
• Start your blockchain project, which will give you hands-on experience in designing, developing, and deploying a blockchain-based application.
• Take certification courses. They are available online and will help you to validate your skills and knowledge. There are plenty of resources available, PFA below.

2. Speak the web3 lingo, got your own style 😎 —

• GM (Good morning) — A greeting used in online communities, especially in crypto and blockchain-related forums and chat groups, usually used to start a new day.
• WAGMI (We are going to make it) — a phrase expressing optimism and determination to succeed despite the challenges.
• HODL (Hold On for Dear Life) — Refers to holding onto your cryptocurrency investments, even during a market downturn or crash.
• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) — The fear of missing out on a potentially profitable investment opportunity.
• FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) — Negative or misleading information spread to discourage or manipulate people from investing in a particular cryptocurrency or blockchain project.
• REKT (wrecked) — Describing a situation where someone loses a large amount of money in the crypto markets.
• BTFD (Buy the F***ing Dip) — A phrase used to encourage buying cryptocurrency during a dip or market downturn, with the belief that the price will eventually recover.
• MOON (Mooning) — Describing a situation where the price of a cryptocurrency or token rises dramatically.
• DYOR (Do your own research) — An acronym encouraging people to research a cryptocurrency or blockchain project before investing in it.
• ATH (All-time high) — Describing the highest price ever reached by a particular cryptocurrency or token.

3. After getting familiar with web3 lingo, explore learning resources and Hands-on projects🧑🏻‍💻👩🏻‍💻-

Online Courses:

• Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=blockchain
• Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/topic/blockchain/
• edX: https://www.edx.org/learn/blockchain

Books:

• “Mastering Bitcoin” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos: https://github.com/aantonop/bitcoinbook
• “The Business Blockchain” by William Mougayar: https://www.amazon.com/Business-Blockchain-Promise-Reality-Innovation/dp/1119365597
• Crypto Facts — Decentralize Payments — Efficient, Low Cost, Fair, Clean — True or False?

Blockchain Platforms Resources:

• Ethereum: https://ethereum.org/greeter
• Hyperledger: https://www.hyperledger.org/learn

Hands-on projects:

• OpenZeppelin (smart contracts library): https://docs.openzeppelin.com/learn/
• Truffle Suite (development framework): https://truffleframework.com/tutorials
• DappHub (for building dApps on Ethereum): https://dapphub.com/

4. Need some 💰🤑 and experience —

Tech roles:

• Blockchain developer: The code wizard of the web3 world
• Smart contract auditor: The security guard of the decentralized world
• Full Stack Developer: The web3 jack of all trades
• Operations and deployment: The web3 knight in shining armor
• Cryptographer: The secret keeper of the web3 realm
• Blockchain researcher: The web3 detective

Non-tech roles:

• Cryptocurrency trader: The web3 day trader
• Cryptocurrency journalist/writer: The web3 wordsmith
• Community manager: The web3 social butterfly
• Marketing manager: The web3 hype master
• Blockchain consultant: The web3 advisor

5. Ship it, aka Let’s BUIDL —

I have categorized some projects that you can build: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Beginner:

• “Blockchain Recipe Book”: Create a simple dApp using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows users to store and share their favorite recipes on the blockchain. No more losing your grandma’s secret lasagna recipe!
• “Crypto Flea Market”: Build a decentralized marketplace using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows users to buy and sell second-hand goods for cryptocurrency. “Because who needs cash when you have crypto?”
• “Real Estate Tokenization”: Develop a simple tokenization platform that allows users to tokenize their property and trade shares of it on a decentralized exchange. “Because who needs landlords when you can have token holders?”

Intermediate:

• “Decentralized Twitter”: Create a decentralized social media platform using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows users to post, comment, and like content and get rewarded with tokens. “Because who needs Elon when you have blockchain?”
• “Crypto Crystal Ball”: Build a decentralized prediction market platform using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows users to make predictions on various events and get rewarded if their predictions are correct. “Because who needs a magic ball when you have smart contracts”
• “Trustless lending”: Develop a decentralized lending platform using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows users to borrow and lend assets in a trustless way. “Because who needs banks when you have blockchain?”

Advanced:

• “Decentralized Democracy”: Create a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows a community of users to govern a project or organization. “Because who needs politicians when you have smart contracts?”
• “Oracle-ize”: Build a decentralized oracle platform using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows smart contracts to access off-chain data and use it to make decisions. “Because who needs a mysterious oracle when you have smart contracts?”
• “DeFi-nitely a good idea”: Develop a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform using a smart contract on Ethereum that allows users to access financial services such as lending, borrowing, and trading in a trustless way. “Because anyone can fly away with the bank money, trust no one !!”

6. Let’s see some bullets that can help you dodge vulnerabilities ☠️—

1. Mythril: A security analysis tool for Ethereum smart contracts https://github.com/ConsenSys/mythril
2. Oyente: A formal verification tool for smart contracts https://github.com/melonproject/oyente
3. Manticore: A symbolic execution tool for binary analysis https://github.com/trailofbits/manticore
4. Slither: A tool for Solidity contract security auditing and testing https://github.com/trailofbits/slither
5. Solhint: A linter for solidity to help you avoid errors and follow best practices https://github.com/protofire/solhint
6. Solgraph: A tool for generating inheritance graphs of Solidity contracts https://github.com/raineorshine/solgraph

7. Major Vulnerabilities or Roadblocks—

• 🕷️Reentrancy: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to reentrancy attacks if they call external functions before updating their internal state.
• 🤑Overflow and underflow: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to overflow and underflow attacks if they don’t check for overflow and underflow conditions.
• 🔒Access control: Smart contracts should have proper access control mechanisms in place to restrict who can execute certain functions.
• 🕰️Timestamp dependency: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to timestamp manipulation attacks if they rely on the block timestamp.
• 💤Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to DoS attacks if they have infinite loops or if they use a lot of gas.
• 🔗External calls: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to attacks if they call external contracts with untrusted or unverified code.
• 📚Third-party libraries: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to attacks using third-party libraries with vulnerabilities.
• 📝Event logging: Smart contracts should have event logging in place to track the execution of critical functions.
• 🚫Unchecked return values: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to attacks if they don’t properly check return values from external calls.
• 💥Unhandled exceptions: Smart contracts can be vulnerable to attacks if they don’t handle exceptions properly.

Read more: Some known attacks — https://consensys.github.io/smart-contract-best-practices/attacks/

8. Cryptoeconomics: where the only thing more confusing than the math is the market —

“Want to know the secrets of crypto economics? Here are some articles that will give you the knowledge without the headache.

1. Cryptoeconomics for dummies
2. Cryptoeconomics 101
3. Making Sense of Cryptoeconomics Making Sense of Cryptoeconomics by Josh Stark
4. What is Cryptoeconomics What is Cryptoeconomics, a guide by BlockGeeks
5. The Blockchain Economy: A beginner’s guide to institutional cryptoeconomics by RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub
6. Cryptoeconomics is Hard Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 by Aleksandr Bulkin
7. Behavioural Crypto-Economics the challenge and promise of Blockchain Incentive Design by Elad Verbin
8. Introduction to Blockchain through Cryptoeconomics by Zubin Koticha
9. The need for an Incentive scheme in Algorand by Alexis Guaba, Zubin Koticha
10. Cryptoeconomics.study A free and open source book & course on Cryptoeconomics
11. Tokenomics An introduction to token economics

Source for cryptoecnomics.

Well folks, that’s a wrap! I hope you enjoyed the article. feel free to reach out to me. Also, do let me know if I should include any more topics to this.

Happy Blockchaining 😊

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