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Full Disclosure: I am currently learning blockchain development and this is just my opinion. Feel free to agree or disagree with me in the comments section
Blockchain development is a promising career option for a lot of coders, young and old, out there. But what's so 'shiny' about blockchain development? Why did I choose to select this over other technologies?
Well this post is me answering this question which may help you in choosing a career in blockchain development.
When I had to up-skill for 'future-proofing' my career, I had shortlisted two fields - one is AI and the other is Blockchain Engineering. AI is an interesting field of study. You could program things to literally predict the future outcome to a high probability. Now that sounds cool. But what is not so cool is to learn the technology. It is said that AI is 10% coding and 90% mathematics. I think it is probably true. I am not a math person, I never was. But still, given the time and efforts, I could have done it. There are courses which will assume zero knowledge and teach you everything from A to Z. I started my short lived AI journey by studying Python for 2 months straight. I took a course on Udemy which taught me everything a beginner needs to know about Python. I took persistent and sustained efforts to finish this course. It was fun and interesting. I think everyone should learn Python as it is easy for just anyone to pick and one can get a taste of what programming could be.
Nevertheless, my AI journey stopped right after me finishing the course. Why? Well, for several reasons. First and foremost, I think the AI market is now kinda saturated. I did a small market research on my own. If you are getting started as a junior data scientist, chances are you will be more or less working as a data analyst who 'cleans' the data for further analysis. Which means you'll have to make the available data ready enough to be fed into a program. It is the major chunk of the work, be it a boring task. Also, only major corporations can hire a lot of data scientists. There too, a couple of them might be actual data scientist at the top and others will be put on the role as data analysts. Small companies, maybe hire a data scientist as a freelancer with less pay than what you think you might get, simply because they can't afford a full time data scientist. That's not all. Major companies wants the best of the talent pool. That means when you are competing for a position, you are literally up against all the data scientists in your country or probably in the world. But isn't that the case with just about job? In my opinion, no. Data Science demands a lot of skills, especially mathematical skills, which admittedly I don't have. There is a reason it is a well paid job. But it is an acquirable skill. What's the problem then? As AI was promoted by all the online learning platforms as the 'new shiny job of century', everybody wanted to become data scientists. Now there are a lot of data scientists in the market, unlike a couple of years ago. A lot of data scientists who are well versed in mathematics against less job opportunities? I'd be lucky if I get a data analyst's job.
Don't get me wrong - Data Science is still a good choice for career but it's just not for me. In retrospect, when I thought about becoming a Data Scientist, all I thought about was the cool title that I am going to get and the big fat paycheck. For me to get into such a position, I'd have to put in twice or thrice the work that I had put into learning Python because again, I am competing against all the able minds of my generation. It took me a lot of time to truly understand and convince myself this point.
Now that I have ruled out AI for me, the next option for me was - Blockchain Engineering. Initially I was pretty much against learning blockchain engineering because I thought - It's just cryptocurrencies! Wat's the big fuss about blockchain engineering anyways!? Blockchain Engineering, as I learned is more than just that. Once I understood how it works, I fell in love with the idea and now I think it could replace a lot of real world applications. Let me explain it in details.
Blockchain is a distributed ledger, which could be public (like Ethereum) or private (like Corda), where you can store data, which could be money transactions and/or a stored program. That's as simple as it gets. What's really valuable about a blockchain is the number of people using it. That's the reason why bitcoin is the highest valuable cryptocurrency. Though it cannot be used to store code, being the first cryptocurrency al lot of people use it. Now there are more and more blockchains coming into picture. Most of them are either a clone of Bitcoin or Ethereum. There are other unique blockchains out there like Cardano or Polkadot for example. If a dApp or a decentralized app is run using a blockchain, it would need a currency to sustain itself. In the case of Ethereum, that currency is Ether. Ether will be used to pay the miners who validate transactions or code. The more people use Ethereum for their activities, whatever it may be, the more will become it's underlying value. That's the reason Ethereum is the second highest highly valued cryptocurrency, even though it is currently not the most sustainable or scalable or fast Blockchain network.
When you study blockchain technology, most likely you will be studying the Ethereum Blockchain which enabled dApp creation on Ethereum network using the Ethereum Virtual Machine or EVM, which enables Ethereum to run code. This code, is also known as Smart Contracts. In simple terms, a smart contract is just a collection of 'if.. then' conditions coded using Solidity programming language. For example: if someone sends x amount of Ether to y account, then enter this y account into a lottery pool. It may seem like only lottery apps can be coded using a blockchain technology, there are a lot more. Think of this EVM as a powerful computer which cannot be hacked at any cost. You could tokenize a physical asset into digital asset coins, you could create Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs to sell basically any image, you could use the EVM to store your data (though it is a long stretch and may not be as efficient as SQL/Non SQL databases but it is till possible), you could create a voting application that is guarantied to be tamper proof (given the underlying contract is a genuine one), and so much more. This means a lot of work which involves paperwork could potentially be transferred on to a blockchain network. Nevertheless this technology, though it has been around for some time, hasn't fully bloomed yet. Also to add, new technologies are coming every now and then which makes the blockchain technology even more secure, fast and scalable.
So essentially, if you are learning blockchain technology today, you get a chance to become an early adopter on this field. It's gets more and more interesting the more you learn about it. And the best part - just about anyone can acquire enough knowledge about it given enough dedicated efforts. Even a non mathematical person, which I will stress again and again, like me. Where am I learning? Well there are plenty of courses out there at different places like Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Oreily Learning, or even YouTube. I am currently on this course on Udemy, which looks good enough for me which covers my requirements which is basically covering A to Z about Blockchain technology. I am not endorsing this course but so far it has been a good journey. You could do your own research and may be even come up with a better place to learn Blockchain technology.
TLDR: The reason for me choosing Blockchain technology - I like this technology!
I encourage you to do your own research before choosing Blockchain over other areas like AI. This post is about my decision and how I have come here. And I am happy with my choice. If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment about it.
