What technical skills do you need to work with blockchain?

Technical skills

Having learnt the basics of how blockchain works, you won’t be surprised to know that you will need a portfolio of technical skills to work with blockchain technologies. These include:

Programming

• Two types of programming skills are needed: (i) system-level programming and (ii) smart contract development. Building new blockchain systems requires systems programming skills such as C, C++, C# and Java. These languages can be used to to provide efficient implementation of the primitive algorithms and data structures for a blockchain. On the other hand, smart contract programming requires skills with languages such as Solidity, Vyper and Javascript.

Data storage and retrieval

• Blockchain is in principle a large secure data structure. It encompasses rules to organise and secure information. Several data structures play a key role in blockchain, for instance, graphs, heaps, linked lists, hash and Merkle trees. The efficiency and security of data storage and retrieval algorithms depend on the mathematical and organisational properties of data structures. Therefore, working with data structures is a prominent skill needed to work effectively with blockchain technologies.

Networks and distributed systems

• You will need knowledge about computer networks, in particular in the different decentralised protocols with which the members of a network efficiently exchange information and reach a consensus.

Cryptography

• Security techniques are essential for ensuring secure communication. For example, there could be members in the network who exhibit malicious behaviour, i.e. members that may want to read or change private messages or work behind a fake identity. Understanding and applying algorithms for encryption/decryption and digital signatures are examples of how you can work with the security aspects of blockchain technologies.