HACKER Q&A
📣 mouzogu

What are your thoughts on Blockchain development?


I've been trying to learn solidity + dapp development with metamask and ethersjs.

At the same time I'm conflicted by the value, utility and future of the industry. I'm definitely interested in the idea of permanence, but I'm not sure what kind of software benefits from permanence.

It's also become clear to me, that someone like me should not be writing "smart" contracts. I also don't have the resources to hire an auditing firm. Not that auditing firms have a great track record either.

I'm interested in privacy, and basic ideas of cryptography, trying to build a different web, although I don't think web3 represent my idea of a better internet.

The blockchain development environment is incredibly fragmented, moving at an extremely fast pace. There are so many competing chains, all doing things differently, with their own languages, protocols, tokens...so on. It's easy to get lost trying to figure out where to focus your learning time.


  👤 ggm Accepted Answer ✓
Stick to the privacy side of things, fundamentals of cryptography. Merkle trees are interesting datastructs and public immutable ledger is interesting, but most $ facing chain activity in public eye is grifting.

Coq and other formal proof methods are worth studying and working in aside from their value in critique of smart contracts.


👤 tornato7
I'm an engineer in the Blockchain space. High level, I think it's one of the most exciting areas to work in right now. 90% of dapps aren't really valuable but the rest make up for it.

If you're interested in chatting about a career in Blockchain please reach out. I'm hiring for front end and quant roles.


👤 quickthrower2
I did the same thing but didn’t continue because I hate the kinds of slow app you get vs. web 2.0

That said what I noticed is a lot of chains are EVM compatible. So had I continued I would have stuck with Solidity, piggybacking off the innovation there.