First VaraDevGuide Course Concludes Successfully — Start Building DApps from Scratch Here!
Vara Network, a rising star in the Layer1 blockchain ecosystem, boasts a founding team with extensive industry experience, having been deeply involved in the development processes of Ethereum and Polkadot. Following the successful launch of the Polkadot mainnet, founder Nikolay Volf independently launched the Gear Protocol, which after two years of meticulous development, led to the official launch of the Vara Network mainnet in late September last year. With its robust technical capabilities and strict compliance standards, Vara Network gained early recognition from Coinbase during its mainnet launch, leading to a swift token listing. It has also received support from multiple top-tier domestic and international VCs, as well as backing from Gavin Wood. Recently, HackQuest and Vara Network have formed a strategic alliance, introducing a free, self-paced Web3 development course to cultivate a highly skilled developer community for the Substrate ecosystem in both Chinese and English. Additionally, Vara Network has successfully integrated with Playnation, deploying TG products on its network.
Vara Network has shown immense growth potential building on such a solid foundation. To help developers quickly master smart contract development on Vara Network, covering basic concepts, environment setup, and contract deployment, OneBlock+ has crafted comprehensive learning content.
The【VaraDevGuide: Building a DApp from 0 to 1】 co-hosted by OneBlock+ and Vara Network, has officially concluded. The course attracted nearly 400 participants, with a total of over 12,800 views. This enriching blockchain learning journey is expected to help students continue to deepen their expertise and grow in the industry. Let’s take a look back at some of the course’s highlights.
Course Recap
The course was personally taught by HangBiao, a Developer Relations Engineer from the Gear Foundation, covering six thematic chapters, from basic knowledge to system architecture, and then to hands-on practice, offering comprehensive and in-depth learning. The course also featured three experienced teaching assistants who provided full-time guidance and support. The first session attracted nearly 400 students, offering them a systematic learning experience, helping them lay a solid foundation in the blockchain field and enhancing their practical skills.
🎨 Course Outline
Session 1: Vara Network Basics
- Introduction to Vara Network
- Core Concepts
- Address Format & Wallet Usage
- Setting up Development Environment
- Deploying Contracts with Gear IDEA
Session 2: Contract Structure
- Metadata
- State Variables & Entry Functions
- Inter-Contract Message Communication
Session 3: Debugging & Testing
- Contract
- gtest Unit Testing
- gclient Integration Testing
Session 4: Asynchronous Logic
- wait & wake
- async/await Syntax
- Sails Framework
Session 5: Contract Automation
- Gas Reservation
- Delayed Messages
Session 6: Gear JS Frontend Interaction
- Reading State
- Wallet Interaction
- Contract Invocation
The course provided extensive support for developers to quickly get started with smart contract development on Vara Network through 6 recorded lessons, 6 Office Hour live Q&A sessions, daily class group Q&A, occasional Workshop tech shares, roundtable discussions, and an online Varathon. There was also a dedicated study group where students could communicate and discuss in real-time, with instructors answering questions online to help solve various learning challenges.
Students not only gained development knowledge but also received bonus rewards. As of now, nearly 40 students have claimed rewards ranging from $50 to $150 for their course assignments.
Student Highlights
🤹 Student Demographics
➣ Young Developers Flood into Web3
The training camp attracted developers of all ages, with those born in the 1990s and 2000s accounting for over 85%, indicating that more and more young developers are joining the Web3 ecosystem.
➣ Highly Educated Students Actively Engaged in Web3 Development
Among the students, undergraduate degree holders constituted the largest proportion, about 64%; followed by those with associate degrees at around 26%; and students with master’s or doctoral degrees made up nearly 10%.
➣ Most Students Have Rich Development Experience
The majority of students in this course were developers with actual development experience. 22.5% of students had no development experience, most of whom were computer science students who mastered one or more programming languages; more than 30% of students had less than 1 year of development experience; nearly 18% had 1–3 years of development experience; about 8% had 3–5 years of development experience; and 21.6% had over 5 years of practical development experience.
➣ Mainstream Programming Languages as Key Choices
In this course, most students were proficient in Java and Python, with 137 and 133 users respectively; a significant number also mastered JavaScript and C/C++, with 106 and 103 users respectively; 82 students mastered Rust; and more than 50 users were proficient in Solidity and Go.
➣ Strong Willingness to Participate in Hands-on Activities
This session’s students showed great enthusiasm for participating in Varathon, with over 77% indicating their willingness to participate.
🥁 Half of the Students Successfully Completed the Course
During the course, aside from instructor HangBiao, several teaching assistants and Class Leader Jessie worked together to help developers complete the Vara Introductory Practical Course. Here’s a summary of the students’ performance in this session from a data perspective.
- Each course video averaged nearly 2,000+ views, with a total of over 12,800 views across all six videos and a total of 26,667+ clicks.
- For each course, we designed assignments including key knowledge points and practical cases, with an assignment completion rate of nearly 40%.
- We held 6 Office Hours, with a total of over 1,370 participants actively engaging in discussions.
- Nearly 130 students successfully completed the course tasks, and graduates have received official certificates and token rewards!
🎯 Student Feedback
After the course ended, to better understand students’ learning experiences and continually improve Vara’s course offerings and content design, OneBlock+ conducted follow-up interviews with the students. Here is a summary of some of the feedback and opinions:
- The overall satisfaction with the course was high; students felt that the course was well-structured, the teaching assistants provided excellent support, and additional learning resources were offered to expand knowledge.
- Most students felt the course difficulty was moderate, suitable for most foundational developers, and they gained a deep understanding of Vara Network and improved their development skills.
➣ Wu Fei
From Chengdu University of Information Technology, currently studying blockchain technology. The course content was well-organized, gradually deepening from the basics to practical application, giving me a clearer understanding of blockchain development. Through this course, I not only mastered the basic skills of blockchain development but also enhanced my understanding and application of key technologies such as contract interaction.
➣ Gou Fugui
A former student at Guanghua Bank Clerk College, currently engaged in risk control and security auditing work. Learned about the Vara project through the OneBlock+ community. Overall, the course was relaxed and enjoyable. The main takeaway was being able to independently complete smart contracts for the Vara project.
➣ Kami
Currently involved in projects related to Substrate, Solidity, and Rust. The Vara course was well-designed, systematic, and practical, especially in the hands-on section, which allowed for rapid accumulation and improvement in practical operations.
We greatly appreciate the valuable feedback from our students. Many students also provided their suggestions for the course, which we won’t list individually here. We will take every piece of feedback seriously, actively iterating and improving the course to ensure everyone benefits from their learning.
🎥 Video Recap
All course and event videos have been uploaded to YouTube, Bilibili, and the OneBlock+ Video Channel, allowing students to watch and review at their convenience on their preferred platform.
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKgwQU2jh_H9S5ZJ1OnzOcLdkg2eRa32j&si=J9KhjeXt6PY24UNk
- Bilibili: https://space.bilibili.com/1650224419/channel/collectiondetail?sid=3206567
- Video Channel: Search for “Oneblock Community” on WeChat
Vara Online Hackathon in Full Swing! Build the Innovation Ecosystem Together
Varathon, hosted by the Gear Foundation, is a year-round online hackathon divided into ten seasons, each pushing the boundaries of Web3 technology innovation. Rust developers are invited to explore Wasm implementations based on the Actor model and persistent memory.
🎢 Special Addition to the Sixth Season: Vara Leaderboard
➣ Weekly Challenges:
Each week, the Varathon team will send a set of tasks to the participating teams. Upon completion, each activity can earn the team up to 25 points.
➣ Task Communication:
Discuss completed activities in the Varathon TG chat group, where the Varathon team will monitor and provide support 24/7.
➣ Point Allocation:
After review, each completed task will earn points that contribute to the leaderboard and ultimately the overall project assessment. At the end of the season, the team with the highest points will be the winner.
Winning projects will be announced in the Varathon TG chat group and shared on Vara’s Twitter. Winners will receive prizes within 1–3 weeks after the final decision.
🔗 Click the link to join now: https://varathon.io/
⌛️ Registration & Project Preparation Time
July 1 — September 2
🎞 Demo Day:
September 5
💰 Total Prize Pool for the Season: $6,000
- 1st Place: $3,000
- 2nd Place: $2,000
- 3rd Place: $1,000
🏭 6 Available Tracks:
Ecosystem Support: Data analysis, developer tools, and applications that enhance the developer experience on Vara Network.
NFT: Tools in the NFT space, innovative collections, and experimental use cases.
DeFi: Original DeFi applications leveraging the technical features of Vara Network.
Gaming: On-chain games developed using the Wasm virtual machine.
ZK: Build cutting-edge privacy contracts on Vara. Develop innovative solutions using the latest zero-knowledge contracts.
Innovation: Support for all out-of-the-box ideas!
📠 Scoring Criteria:
Innovation: Evaluating the originality and innovation of the project or solution.
Potential Impact: Assessing the applicability and reusability of the code or program for other projects.
User Experience: Examining the user-friendliness of the application front-end.
Future Development: Evaluating the project’s future development plan and feasibility.
Live Demo: Understanding the project roadmap, concept, and operation principles based on the live demo.
🧰 Community Exclusive $50 Submission Reward:
Complete the registration and submit a Varathon demo to receive a $50 community-exclusive reward.
- Go to the official website (https://varathon.io/), click “Register Now.”
- Fill in personal information (*required fields).
- In “How did you find out about the hackathon,” select “F. OneBlock+,” and send a screenshot to Class Leader Jessie (yikuailianxi) for registration.
About OneBlock+
OneBlock+ is the first and the largest blockchain developer community in China. At OneBlock+, we provide full support for developers with their substrate studies and further set off their career paths. We host Polkadot Hackathons every season to attract top-notch developers to build and innovate for the prosperity of the ecosystem. As a greater China technology resource integrator, OneBlock+ also partners with developers, communities, business elites, and key media who have business insights and experiences in the blockchain industry to provide educational events, such as technical courses, webinars, AMAs, and offline events for the industry. Want to shape the crypto world together? Come and join us today!
