5 Languages You Need To Be A Blockchain Developer
It’s the simple things in life that make a huge impact. One of those are the principles of supply and demand. When there is great demand for a resource , the value of an asset rises in tandem with it.
The blockchain job market is no different from that. Mass adoption is on the rise with major institutions jumping on the train such as JP Morgan launching their own digital coin , JPM Coin and PayPal announcing support for cryptocurrency on its platform.
And they’re going to need human resource to work on that.
After trawling hiring platforms such as Google Glassdoor and Indeed , here’s some of the languages you need to know to get started or refine your skills to enter the blockchain industry.
1. Solidity
The backbone of Ethereum , Solidity is an object oriented language used for developing and writing smart contracts that run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine ( EVM ). It has many similarities with JavaScript syntax to make it familiar to existing web developers.
Due to its purpose of executing smart contracts , in other words facilitating and executing an action , you can use it for anything under the sun that involves a change of events. That could be voting , identity verification , crowdfunding , supply chain tracking and more.
Given the versatility of this language , its no surprise nearly every other blockchain job posting has at least a mention of Solidity. Postings by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and TrustToken both list Solidity as one of it requirements.
Examples of Use Cases : Ethereum , Ethereum Classic
2. C++
C++ is one of the oldest general purpose programming languages around , developed as an extension of C. The language as we know it today can support object oriented and functional programming , giving it a fitting name of “ C with Classes “.
Its widely known that blockchain has a wide attack surface due to having to trust thousands of endpoints that are not known to you. C++ manages that concern because of its ability to control micro elements such as CPU and memory usage , threading and code isolation. Blockchain projects are also made open source most of the time meaning it would be preferable to have a mature and battle tested language to avoid incidents like The Dao Attack.
One thing to note however is that C++ has a steep learning curve being a strictly typed language. If you are a fresh programmer there are likely better options to consider below that can get you up and running quickly.
Examples of Use Cases : Ripple , Bitcoin Core
3. Javascript
JavaScript is a popular high level , just-in-time compiled language birthed from the ECMAScript standards to guarantee interoperability across different web browsers and web pages. Basically , write once , run anywhere. JavaScript’s uses cases have gone beyond the web into embedded serves via Node.js and frameworks such as Electron and Cordova.
Most of us are already familiar with JavaScript — it practically powers the World Wide Web along with HTML and CSS. But client side scripting and web interactivity only scratches the surface of JavaScript’s functions , it is capable of building an entire blockchain network as seen in this project where JavaScript is used to make a Bitcoin lookalike.
A look over at Google Glassdoor and we see multiple mentions of JavaScript as a requirement to fill roles such Backend Blockchain Developers in IBM and Blockchain Engineer with Chainlink Labs.
Examples of Use Cases : Neo , Web3js
4. Java
Not to be confused with JavaScript above , Java is another popular object oriented , class based language maintained by Oracle. It shares the principles of general usage and write once , run anywhere with JavaScript due to its compilation into byte code which means the underlying computer architecture can be disregarded.
Given its mature and versatile nature , Java can be used to program entire blockchains from back-ends to front-end clients. Java has the performance speed of modern languages such as Python and features pluggability which is very useful in blockchain programming to add functionality without modifying the original code base.
Filling roles such as Blockchain Developer at Resource1 or Full Stack Developer at Binance Research mentioned having experience with Java as being a plus point.
Examples of Use Cases : NEM , IOTA
5. Golang
Referred to as a Go for short , the Go Project is an open source effort by Google and public contributors to create a Frankenstein of the best features of each modern programming language out there. Wikipedia describes Go as syntactically similar to C , having the runtime efficiency of C++ and the usability of Python and JavaScript.
Now that’s a big claim for a language. Plus we’ve always found their mascot to be incredibly adorable.
As for developing blockchain , Go has features such as “ Goroutines “ which makes it very lightweight on processor utilization and memory. Go also has a significantly faster execution time due to it being a compiled language , as opposed to an interpreted language.
Filling roles as a Senior Developer at the Stellar Development Foundation and a Staff Software Engineer at Coinbase recommends you to have worked with Go in order to join their team.
Examples of Use Cases : IBM Hyperledger Fabric
Takeaways
Blockchain is a full solution on its own , there are many different languages used for different aspects of a project. You could use C++ for the blockchain core and Java to build the client. You could go all in on Go and finish your product in one language.
Therefore by learning any one or all of these languages , its hard to go wrong in your journey of blockchain development.
On top of having the technical skills to develop blockchain solutions , it certainly helps to get certified on your skills as a form of formal verification to your potential employer. We covered that in a post here.
