The majority of jobs in cryptocurrency require computer science degrees or a strong background in tech. Blockchain development is now the most searched-for freelance skill, having skyrocketed by over 6,000 percent since last year. But in this booming industry, there’s still plenty of room for all kinds of people to get on board.
The crypto community is packed full of so-called “experts”, but most people freely admit that they’re learning as they go. You can work in crypto outside of the development world, in marketing, administration, PR, or even project management.
Start by educating yourself. Let’s take it for granted that you already know about your chosen area of expertise. It’s going to be an uphill struggle if you’re looking to manage a blockchain company’s social media and don’t know how to post a tweet.
But if you’ve already proven your worth in your field and want to specialize in crypto, follow the news, listen to podcasts, and read some guides. These are all great ways to get started. You could also try taking some of the following highly rated courses:
Contents
For Beginners
Blockchain Basics
The Blockchain Basics Course is brought to you by Jonathan Reichental (a professor, advisor, and mentor – but not “expert”). As the name suggests, this is a good starting point if you want an overall view. You’ll get to grips with the basics, obtaining the blocks on which to build your future knowledge.
The intended audience is corporate execs, but this course can be useful for anyone who is curious about blockchain technology and thinking about making a career transition. Some of the highlights include economics and the business of blockchain, as well as an intro to the decentralized economy.
Cryptocurrency Fundamentals: Buy, Sell, Trade Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency Fundamentals: Buy, Sell, Trade Cryptocurrency is rated 4.7 out of 5 by over 500 users, so this highly popular course has proven its value. It’s also currently available on Udemy with an 88 percent discount. If that sounds too good to be true, well, perhaps that’s part of the plan to prepare you for ICO red flags.
The title is an obvious giveaway. This course is about cryptocurrency buying and selling and less about blockchain economics. But it’s suitable for beginners. Not just people who have never traded before, but for anyone who doesn’t know their Bitcoin from their Monero.
You’ll get to grips with all the main cryptocurrencies and understand what makes them different and why. You’ll also find out how to set yourself up on several exchanges, and learn the importance of hot and cold storage and how to protect your investments.
Medium
Blockchain Fundamentals
Blockchain Fundamentals is a well-rated course taught by a veteran coder and a published author, Jan-Erik Sandberg. This means that you’ll not only get the basics, but you’ll also get a good grasp of the technical concepts. This is a short course that will only take up a couple of hours of your life – and when you sign up with Pluralsight, you’ll get a 10-hour free trial.
During this quick course, you’ll learn how to create your own blockchain contracts and distributed applications. You’ll also discover how to create private blockchains and learn about the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts, and DApps.
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies
You can find the Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies course on Coursera. It was created by Princeton University, and it is a good one for those of you who want to dive deeper into Bitcoin and what makes it so special. You’ll get a decent dose of tech-speak, but you don’t necessarily need to be a full-blown developer to take this course.
At the end of it, you should be able to understand the fundamentals of Bitcoin, factors that determine its price, a brief look at regulation, and what the future might hold. The course claims to teach the “conceptual foundations you need to engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network.” And you’ll even be able to integrate some ideas from Bitcoin into your own projects.
Expert
Study Material for Certified Blockchain Developer
Taking advantage of a whopping 89 percent discount, you can brush up your programming skills with useful supporting material to become a certified blockchain developer. Your instructor, Toshendra Sharma, provides all the tools you’ll need in order to take the Blockchain Council’s CBD course.
You’ll need to have experience in software development and programming languages, as well as knowledge of Microsoft Azure and AWS. Awareness of cryptocurrencies and blockchains is also going to be a big help.
Blockchain Council
If you’re ready to take your career up a notch or two, head over to the Blockchain Council website. You’ll need to know about AWS, cryptocurrency, Microsoft Azure, and other programming languages before you can get Blockchain certified. You can also specialize and take a Smart Contract Developer course or an Ethereum expert course.
Learn Solidity
Udemy is slashing prices across the board on its courses right now. So if you’re a programmer who’s interested in working on Ethereum, you can now take 94 percent off Learn Solidity. You’ll discover how to code Ethereum smart contracts using Solidity and how to develop DApps too. With such a strong developer community and so many DApps built on Ethereum, learning Solidity is a solid (get it?!) choice for any programmer.
The Takeaway
This is by no means an exhaustive guide to cryptocurrency resources. The options available to you are growing by the day. Moreover, since this is such a new industry, many companies won’t ask for previous experience and will help teach you on the job. It’s still good to be prepared though.
Just remember before you spend your money on any cryptocurrency course to check the ratings and the credentials. Like ICO teams, there are plenty of cryptocurrency “experts” out there who have few qualifications and create a flashy website in an attempt to cash in.
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