Why you should learn solidity in 2023
What is Solidity and Why is it Important?
Table of contents
Introduction
Advancements in technology will never end so the question here is: will you be able to keep up? or are you comfortable with being left behind? Well, that's up to you to answer.
Web 1.0 gave us our first thirst of the internet through static sites with zero interactivity. Advancements in technology came and this led to the birth of web 2.0. Web 2.0 offered us dynamic content and also brought interactivity to web pages. With time, web 1.0 was replaced by web 2.0. More recently, web 3.0 has been the new girl in town and is on its way to replacing web 2.0 and this is one of the reasons why you need to learn solidity. Web 3 brings decentralization which is achieved through blockchain technology. This means people can interact through the internet without any need for a centralized entity. We are moving from centrally owned and managed applications like Facebook, Google etc to applications built on decentralized protocols(DApps). Also in finance, we are moving from centrally owned financial institutions like banks to decentralized finance(DEFI) which is only possible in web 3. Wouldn't you want to be part of these technological advancements? Yes? Keep on reading.
The Ethereum blockchain is the backbone of web 3.0 as both defi and dApps are built on it. We need to understand what "Ethereum blockchain" is before we can understand why we need to learn solidity.
What is the Ethereum blockchain
Firstly, what is a blockchain? Well, the simplest definition I could give is that - A blockchain is a public database that is updated and shared across many computers in a network. This means a copy of the database is stored on each computer in the network (decentralization). Most resources refer to these connected computers as nods. Ethereum makes blockchain more powerful by embedding a computer in it. This computer is known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine - EVM. The EVM executes smart contracts which are programs deployed to the Ethereum blockchain. So a simple analogy is that we write a program(smart contract) and have many different computers execute the instructions for us and also use these computers as our database. Ethereum aims to become the world's computer. We control computers by writing programs for them to execute. Now, imagine being able to write programs to control the world's computer. Cool right? Well, you know what's cooler? these programs(smart contracts) are primarily written with solidity.
Since we know what Ethereum and blockchain are, we can now define Ethereum blockchain as a blockchain with a computer (EVM) embedded in and it executes programs(smart contracts) and stores a copy of the database on all the computers connected in the network.
Note that smart contracts are compiled to bytecode before they can be executed by the EVM.
What is solidity
Solidity is a high-level, statically typed object-oriented programming language for writing smart contracts. It is influenced by C++, Python and JavaScript. If you're already a developer, learning solidity wouldn't be difficult and if you're a complete newbie, fear not!
Here are some learning resources to get started
In conclusion, web3 is still in its early stage of development and wouldn't you want to be part of this relatively new technology? I speak only for myself. Blockchain developers are in demand right now, especially those that are very familiar with solidity. There is no better time to start learning solidity. Start today! start now!