How to Master Blockchain with ZERO Coding Experience

Can you become a blockchain developer without any programming experience? I get this question all the time and my answer is always, of course you can so I'm gonna settle it once and for all. I'm gonna prove it to you today, so I've, actually invited a guest on my channel today.

Chris here you're gonna hear from in a minute and Chris had zero programming. Experience basically had no technical understanding of how the blockchain work alright and then in just a few short months, became a real-world blockchain developer and has built his own real-world project that he's.

Gon na turn it into a business. So I'm gonna talk to Chris and sort of like ask him. You know you know, should you learn blockchain first like if you have no development background, do you need to learn? You know all these are the skills like web development before you go, learn blockchain, or should you just start with blockchain? First? Okay, so I have lots of opinions on this.

You know you know. Just me hear my opinion. You're gonna hear from Chris, and actually what his experience was like, and so I think you're really gonna fun is helpful so before we get into that, you know if you're new around here.

Hey i'm gregory from deaf university and on this channel i teach you how to become a blockchain master. So if that's, something that you're interested in then click the like button down below and click subscribe and also chris, is a graduate of my blockchain bootcamp and he learned all the skills to build this real real project inside The bootcamp, so if you want to master these blockchain skills, just like Chris did without any background, I can show you how to do that step-by-step.

Alright, just headin over to dab university comm for it slash bootcamp to get started. Tell us a little bit about your background. You know you were not a programmer before you started the blockchain bootcamp.

You did have you know pretty impressive background. Otherwise, somebody tell us a little bit about that and kinda what your goals were in joining and you know what your journey was to becoming. Well my background, as I spent most my I'm in my 50s, I spent most of my time doing sales and marketing.

I did graduate with a engineering degree, but but I only did a little bit of chip design semiconductor designs for a few years, and I meant pretty much in sales and marketing so towards uh. Most recently decided that I wanted to learn, programming and - and I you know in the cryptocurrency, I thought blockchain would be a great place to start started really from nowhere.

I you know, I, you know window space. No, you know, didn't know what you know. Any programming JavaScript nothing HTML. None of that. So I did come across DAP University. I'm, not even sure how - and I I signed up for his for the lessons and I saw they were building in exchange, and I said oh, this is exactly what I can see what I want to do, but it's.

Different and so what I've done is a if I've started with the capstone project and have changed it, and - and this is a derivatives trading platform so and then the derivative is, puts and calls something that'S very familiar in the equities markets, like you know, SP or oil.

They're. You know the derivatives market is huge, so I've done this with just this prototype here, where, where E is the underlying asset, and then I used I Chris, you know this is a pretty sophisticated project for somebody who had never coded before.

So you know people ask me a lot when they first start. You know they come across blockchain and maybe they have a little bit of programming experience or no programming experience. They ask me all the time like hey.

Do I need to go learn. You know. Web development first ready to go, learn this first try to go, learn that first and I always say: if you really want to learn: blockchain it's best to just start learning blockchain and then learn the other essential skills that you need to accomplish.

That goal kind of as you go so that's. The approach I've, taken to the blockchain bootcamp, is that the approach that you took in here on this and was that success I wouldn't even be. If I understand correctly, I would even be a little bit more narrow in my experience and that what really helped me is that I've, had this capstone project right and it is a complete project and it and you can you you can go Back I couldn't.

Tell you how many times I've moved forward, and then I got stuck and I had a go back. Maybe even almost at the beginning to reinstall everything - and you say - oh and I used to be very disappointed with myself, but in fact it's.

Actually it's. Actually there's. Some benefit to that, because you, you really learn how things work and write and use that methodology keep pushing myself forward and forward and forward, and what really was helpful as I had this template that I could just change, I mean if you looked at my code, It's, embarrassing because you know I'm.

All I was afraid to delete your code, so it's. Still later I'm, just not using it. So it's. It's very inefficient. It's, but that said, you know I'm now I have another version of it. I'm now, starting to strip stuff out that I'm 100 %.

Confident I couldn't. Tell you how many times I I broke it and yeah, I would recommend, is a real good understanding of get. I right, I used that so much. In fact, I found it more. I found it better for me to not debug just roll back to a previous version that worked and start again from there.

So if I do those increments, often that because sometimes my debugging just you know - I'll - spend days trying to say on that. Yeah yeah gets gets just like having checkpoints in a video game or something like that where you can yeah, but I mean really got to commit to that.

So I usually, I have lots of branches. I have get Cub. I'm pushing stuff up there. I'm, adding commits all day long right. I'm rolling back many times because I find it kind of I don't like it when things don '

T compile I find it, you know always that's. Another thing it's. All you know always keep a compiled version, oh yeah, which is hugely important, and the other thing that I would add is again. This is not, as in you know, there's.

I haven't, really figured out truffle well enough that there's, not a lot of debug in truffle. For us, the solidity code, at least I don't how to do it, so maybe that's. It's, getting better about yeah.

It's, definitely getting better. In fact, truffle just released something where you can see stack traces in your failing tests now some ice yeah. That would be a great class. If I could recommend that I you know I have it.

I've heard of that. I actually tried to use truffle different way and I broke it. So I said you know I'm. Not I might I can't. I can't, be bug here myself, so I'm just using the quick start and then the other thing.

It really was a game. Changer for me was and again it's. Not so literally related was Redux. Rewrite makes life so much easier once you really commit to the concept, because you know, if you look on my page, you've got seven, you got five different objects and a beta Vale variable and one object, and you need it in another object.

If you don't use redux it's, it's, painful yeah totally. So I'll. Explain that really quickly for other people who are watching, maybe they maybe that in the bootcamp, but maybe they've done some of the free tutorials on you know my youtube channel.

So you know some of my tutorials. I show you how to use react and build an interface like this. You know you can see. Chris's got his exchange interface. Ours is options platform. Here I mean the boot camp.

We start with a basic exchange and so like. If you're gonna build that you know like any other tours, I've done the channel, maybe like the marketplace tutorial or the to-do list. Whatever it is. You know we use react, but you know we pull in some blockchain data and we keep it in the front-end like there's there's, a reason.

You know we pull data off the blockchain, we put it in the client-side application and for most the tutorials we just used the react state object because it's, really simple: it's, just a little bit of data.

We just need to update that, but for a much more complex application like this, like NBC Chris Harris on a screen, I tip you know, I think you need something more sophisticated than that and I like Redux and I'd - teach people how to Use Redux, and we do that the bootcamp and that's.

What this does? It basically creates like a front end database for your project. We can pull data off the blockchain, really any data that you want to, but primarily in this case it's about sort of doing the state management or creating kind of like a front end database mirror of what '

S happened on the blockchain inside your said, your app so yeah. So, like I said I've, you know I ' Ve got quite a bit to go there's. Many other functions that have to be done in option trading things like settlement and and exercising, and I've, got that all done in the solidity code.

I just don't. Have it at the front end. That said, you know I didn't test as well as I should have. I've kind of you know I rightful wrongfully. I find I want to see it work. I kind of test as I go um, which is probably the shortcoming of myself.

Well, hey. You know, especially, I think hand, testing things, especially when you're just starting out, sometimes like writing tests alongside your actual actual development, when you're, just getting started can be a little cumbersome, they could be make him slow the process Down and be almost just too hard, it was for me when I first started programming, so I didn't really start adapt much of a testing philosophy until I probably am programming for a few years to tell you the truth for like production projects.

I worked on lots of stuff where didn't write too many tests and tests aren't always necessary for everything. So I definitely wouldn't feel discouraged about that. You know they're, pretty important for it.

Smart contracts, yeah deploying stuff to the to the main network, but you don't, always have to write the tests first and then write the code. You know there's. A lot of people who say they're, truly test driven, but I you know I you know it's just trying to get there as fast as I could.

You know so. Yeah and you don't always have to in you know, I think it's about choosing the right strategy for what you're, trying to do right, yeah. Obviously I'm gonna to do some sort of audit and testing if, before I go to the main neck, because you'd, be dealing with some real money so yeah.

So let's. Talk about that! I want to talk about kind of what your goals and ambitions are with this project, because you know some lot of people. You know come to dab University for a few reasons. A lot of them want to become blotching developers.

You get hired in a company, but you came at. You came at this. What's, wanting to build your own product that you're actually going to launch of the real world? So what's? Your ambitions about that arts or your journey sure, so we a fundamental idea, is that we were developing a protocol.

We call the DSF protocol to centralize a settlement facility protocol and it's for and it's, doing all the smart contracts for the puts and calls options. So what it does it creates um. It writes some.

It stores the money and then it settles them and and so what a settle means. So let's say on May 31st right, the option has expired and if it expires, in-the-money, meaning there's value to it. There's, a whole procedure of how you distribute those funds to both sides of the party.

Remember every trade there's, two sides, so everything needs to get settled. You have to unwind the trade if we basically burn the option. So the option goes away and then and the new options get created.

So there's, a cycling of contracts or options, and so as they get burned there's money in them. So they need to be settled in a proper, fair way, and - and so you know I need to you - know that's kind of the next step.

For that and then, ultimately we you know we want to. I'd like to get this out onto the main net um. There will be some steps along the way. Next thing will probably be the test net and you know get people trading on it and along those ways, and then yeah.

Then we have some other, you know and some other great ideas. I think there's a there's. Um. The derivatives market is huge. It's, it's, it's. Hey you know it's, a hundred trillion dollar market out there.

People are are betting on. You know hedging on on all sorts of underlying assets. So I think this we ' Ve got some ideas like this. You you could do this for Bitcoin, for example. Here, oh, if you mentioned having this trading pair of eath and die, you could maybe use a ERC 20 token.

That was like a wrap, bitcoin right, yeah tokenize, it basically yeah exactly so. Then you're. Now you're, you're. You can now trade, all the all your Bitcoin or any other token, and then ultimately, I have some ideas about how you could do kind of private tokenization on the public.

Blockchain right, electric companies could trade and sell their electric tokens and the way they would get redeemed. You could go to the SCE and you know each token will lower your bill a little bit. You know as a gang never know so it's.

A it's, creating more efficient markets if you will so yeah, so there's, a lot that I think applications for this and again I you know my my motivation is a little different as I've gotten older Is that I wanted to, I wanted to build the technology first and that that's kind of my been my mission yeah.

Well, yes, it looks like you've done a great job at that, and I'm really impressed, especially from somebody who you know, couldn't code before and then just jumped in there straight into the deep end.

But you know that's, my style, that's kind of how I learned to code from beginning I started off. I'd, necessarily want to get a job as a developer, where I'd, taught myself out of code. You know I wanted to build my own product and I just jumped in and I ended up working as a developer down the road, but when I started that's, the deck, what I did - and I you know I did a big intensive course - Just like this, that teaches you got to build a real-world product that's.

I'm, a big believer in that approach, because, if you want to, you know either way, if you want to build your own product or you want to work for someone else or you're building a project in that best way To do is just by learn by doing yeah.

I would recommend. Definitely if you know it, you know to the other. People on adapt, University or people who want to join is what really kind of drives me or helped me a lot was I had a project. I had something I wanted to build and I hate know how to do it, but I know where I wanted to go so I yeah, like I said your your exchange.

When I came across it I said. Oh I I could see you know this. Is this vision has been? Actually it's change, I have to admit it's taken me a lot longer, because my first couple versions were crap. It didn't happen.

The way I wanted it to it. Didn't, really it was too complicated. This is less. This is the simple version so hard. It sometimes gets complicated. It's hard to present your ideas. Oh definitely yeah. It definitely can't, be for sure.

You know see oh yeah, I'm very thankful, and I'm glad. I came across it's been really helpful. Yeah that's great and Chris is also uh. Chris is inside the blockchain mastery program too, so some people get confused, they say, oh, what is this? What is that just so frame? Why, who's interested and want to take the next step? Basically, the blockchain bootcamp is the step by step curriculum from going from zero, not being a program or not know anything on blockchain, and you come out with the real-world skills that you need do just like.

What chris is done, whether you want to you know, get a job or build your own product, that's. What that program is and the blockchain mastery is a little bit different. It's more of a community-based thing where you get to interact for another, get kind of weekly updates.

We do like Q & amp A live streams in there stuff, like that. Yes, that's, kind of a that's. What that is versus the bootcamp and people is asking. If you're gonna do one or the other. I recommend the bootcamp.

What would you say Chris yeah well for what I needed? This is what I want. I mean if you end up my recommendation to to all. If you will, if you wanted to really know it and do it, you got ta, find a project to work on, and you know it could be as simple as you know, collecting data and writing it on the blockchain and having a so it and then pulling It back you know whatever that data you want to be.

It forces you how to work with api's. You know it makes you Mitt how you build a project makes you run the interface. You have to write the solidity code. You know you, you end up learning a lot because going through the tutorial, which I did many times it's great, but you you don't, know it until you, you don '

T really know it until you do it right, yeah so, and that's. What I always recommend people is build your portfolio projects, so the portfolio may just be for yourself right. If you're trying to build your own project, but you're trying at a job it's, definitely essential that's.

What I always say is that's. The reason I went with an exchange and the bootcamp is because it serves a real-world use case right now. You can actually use it in the real world and it's, a great platform for modifying yourself and extending to do just what you've done, which is you can take something where you learn a lot of skills and then build On top of it, and that's, where you get that extra knowledge of having to do something, unguided yeah so and again, I'll.

Just read the one. The one kind of theme I got from the bootcamp from the capstone project is this rhythm and methodology of using trading, selectors and and and you know, and bringing in the props and and then using the props.

You know the the state profit I've got the Kinect Kinect to you. Yeah Redux pre connect your components to them exactly right and that that whole, like I said that it's, a it's, a it's, a basic rhythm you use for everything like I, you even talk about how You repeat, every meal - so repeat repeat, repeat these templates and yeah that's.

Basically, what I did completely awesome, yeah yeah, very cool Chris well yeah Chris, I've, really enjoyed this. This has been a great conversation. I'm, so glad you show this to us again. I'm, really impressed that you kind of started from scratch and I haven't got at this point and that's, really.

What I wanted to show pretty much everybody who's watching this? Is that yeah? You can start with no programming experience and become a blockchain developer, because that's, that's. What you are now claim it or not.

Oh yeah, so if you get, if anyone who seizes that is interested in options in general has questions yeah, we just Rapala, I guess and sure, and have afford me the links. Other questions I'll, certainly yeah.

Also yeah yeah. It's, always if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to either to me a Gregory, DAP university or maybe, if Chris has a contacting, wants to pass along later, I can put it on video description as well.

Okay will do yeah awesome well, yeah, like I said there's been great. Everybody join me in thanking Chris for being on this channel. Today I'm gonna go ahead and wrap us up for now, um, so yeah. Thanks again, Chris and until next time, thanks for watching DAP University