What do Facebook, Visa, Shell, IBM, and EY have in common (other than being stupid rich)? They’re all hiring blockchain talent. Indeed, blockchain jobs are popping up all over the place these days. If you ever thought about learning the ins and outs of distributed ledger tech, now might be a good time – and we’ve got an idea where you can start.
The University of California, Berkeley is currently running a “Blockchain Technology” online course on EdX. Among other things, the course will familiarize you with various consensus mechanisms (like Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work or Ethereum’s upcoming Proof-of-Stake), the concept of tokenomics, and the challenges of scaling decentralized networks.
The best thing about the course is you can sign up for free – though, you will have to fork out $99, if you want to get your assignments graded and receive a certificate of completion.
Too busy to dabble in blockchain right now? Don’t worry. The Blockchain Technology course is pretty flexible. You can take it at your own pace (as long as you complete it by July 30), and the workload is relatively light: the course manual says you’ll only need five to six hours a week (for six weeks) to get through it.
Do I need to know anything about about blockchain before enrolling?
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Yes, but you shouldn’t let your unfamiliarity with the subject matter deter you from taking the course.
The instructors expect students to have completed their previous course on “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies.” While the prerequisite course is no longer running, you can still access an archived version of it (you’ll need an EdX account to see the contents of the course, though). That should help you catch up.
Enroll for Berkeley’s Blockchain Technology course by clicking here.
This post includes affiliate links to courses that you can buy online. If you purchase them through our links, we get a small cut of the revenue.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.