Web3 Changed My Life Trajectory & Career
Now, this is the story all about how,
My life got flipped-turned upside down,
And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there,
I’ll tell you how I became a student of a world called Web3.
Ahh, it's always refreshing to start off with a Fresh Prince, albeit slightly tweaked, quote 🤣.
The Beginning
About 8 months ago I discovered something called an NFT. I read all the trending articles and gathered all my knowledge on the topic. I couldn't fathom why someone would be silly enough to buy a JPEG you could right-click and save for massive amounts of money.
WHY?
I just needed to experience this madness for myself. After reading about NFT’s and watching countless videos on the topic, I decided to open a crypto wallet and buy some Solana. The concept of having a digital wallet for digital currency with seed phrases for protection was fascinating. Just how did such a long list of randomised words protect your account? I have yet to dive down that rabbit hole. Nonetheless, I now had Solana. So, off I went to Rarity Tools to find an upcoming project. I happened to find Dope Cats, a project with cool artwork and a Discord community filled with a family-like environment. There were also a lot of other newbies in the group. I went ahead and minted my first ever NFT!
But then it got me thinking…
How does this JPEG of a cat differ from other JPEG’s of cats? What exactly makes this particular JPEG an NFT? How does this image somehow have an identification number that somehow links itself to your ownership? And so the quest for knowledge began.
Down The Rabbit Hole We Go
I needed to learn more about this topic. There was a female moderator in the Dope Cats discord, so I private messaged her. It was nice to find a fellow female in such a male dominated space. She was so lovely. There was a miscommunication and she thought I was asking about how to be a mod. She later went on to tell me that solidity was somehow linked to NFT’s and I should look into Crypto Zombies. I had no clue what Solidity was and had no prior coding experience. I got the answer to my question: NFT’s are coded using Solidity. But how could I stop now? I had a chance to attempt building an INTERACTIVE game using this language.
Solidity With No Prior Knowledge
I started with Crypto Zombies and fell in love with it. I was actually understanding and coding things, all on my own. In addition to this, I was consuming Solidity and Web3 related content daily. My favourite YouTube channels were Dapp University and Moralis Web3. For learning Solidity, my number one resource would be Solidity By Example and his YouTube explanation videos Smart Contract Programmer.
Despite my best efforts, I often ran into the same issue. I did not understand WHY certain things were done in certain ways. I could not think for myself and use Solidity to create my own work. I needed to learn the guidelines around how to problem solve and the tools I could utilize. After my extensive search, I found that I should learn JavaScript in order to learn Solidity. I needed to learn the fundamentals. Long story short, it was hard. I used resources like freecodecamp and even enrolled into CS50. The teacher in CS50 was OUTSTANDING! I however could not complete the labs after scratch on my own. I knew that soon I would find my answer, that giving up was not the solution. I kept searching for the right teacher and I finally think I have found him.
Then VS Now
I had left my healthcare career to raise a family. I knew I didn't want to go back into that field. Prior to stumbling upon Web3, I dabbled in eCommerce, learnt WordPress, learnt business skills and all about sales funnels. Now, I have finally found what I want to do for the rest of my life.
If you are someone who is creative, but not in the artistic sense. If you are someone who is curious and loves to learn, consider trying programming. It might just surprise you.
This will be my blog, my notepad in which I summarise what I am learning. This is my reference guide. I am currently learning JavaScript to reach my end goal of becoming a Web3 dev. If you would like to join me on my journey and learn JavaScript then Solidity with me, be sure to follow along.
