I think it's going to depend on the position, but the easiest / lowest barrier to entry is definitely with front end developers, as they can usually get hired without any web3 experience at all. If you are a FE dev, and you spend a month to learn Ethers.js + calling smart contracts, sign in with Ethereum, and querying from something like The Graph, you'll stand out for sure. I think this tweet is pretty accurate I think for new devs into the space, you can't go wrong learning Solidity, Ethers.js, and Hardhat as an entry level stack. It's much easier to pick up and you can write for a dozen or so chains. Rust is gaining momentum and there are a ton of job openings, but the barrier to entry is much higher and it's a lot more complex. I think of the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) as the React / JavaScript of the blockchain world. Learn once, write in many places. Yes, you can probably land a role in web3 as a FE developer with just that skillset! Yes! I just interviewed Alisha today here , she broke into the space a few months ago and has been crushing it. It's all about networking, finding a community, and providing value. Find the communities that you are interested in and start diving in. Also check out the different grants programs that are out there. These programs often are the best way to get paid to learn while also building relationships with the teams. You can land grants for beginner type of stuff, like community building, documentation improvements, or educational blog posts and videos.

I'd say learning in public is one of the biggest growth hacks I've seen for developers looking to land their first role. Also, just building and documenting what you're building in GitHub goes a long way. If you don't have an idea of what to build, I'd just say rebuild something we see every day, like a furniture store or clothing store website, a restaurant site, a blog with a CMS, a bug tracker or a real estate website. Building is the best way to learn.

I'd say none. Instead, I'd learn JavaScript and React in parallel. While learning React, you'll run into situations where you have to learn / understand parts of the JavaScript language, from there you can go back and forth learning as you need to. Being able to build something of substance is important while learning, and using a framework like React (or I'd recommend Next.js), you can kill two birds with one stone!

Writing is hard. I'd say my suggestion would be to start keeping a running tab of blog ideas, and then after you've gathered a few, set aside dedicated time to just write. You don't have to start with anything substantial, but if you can just write down a general outline of the top points you want to make and go from there, it's usually a great tactic because you have something accomplished and you can start filling in the details. I usually look at a blog post as something that takes around 5 to 10 passes before it's ready to be shared. Each pass could be looked at like a paint brush, at first it's not anything to look at, but after a few passes it starts to turn into something great.

The Graph Network was officially launched in July, and there has been a lot of action between the various roles and we've been gathering a lot of feedback around improvements. Right now we are working on a handful of really great updates that you'll probably start seeing rolled out towards the end of this year and beginning of next year.

I'm really excited to see Real Estate and Social Media get flipped on it's head in the next few years!

I definitely chose to pivot my career to web3 because I believe in it, but that being said, it's definitely overhyped right now. There are a ton of opportunities right now, but the space is still so new and volatile it's hard to know the level of real adoption we're going to see over the next couple of years, or to predict the volatility of the market. I don't think anyone needs to add it to their skill set, instead my recommendation is to experiment with it as well as a handful of other in demand tech and see what is most interesting to you. There is so much opportunity right now, if you're in tech then you're already already on a great path, from here it's just figuring out what you'd like to work on. For me, I've never had so much fun as I'm having in web3, but it's going to be different for everyone!

Hi Usma, really great questions! To me, the things that excite me the most are back end composability and open nature of smart contract platforms. Also the fact that all of this data remains completely open and free, forever, is very interesting. Smart contract platforms also simplify authorization and authentication on the back end, making it so that there is universal consistency across all front and back ends, underscoring the composability of smart contract platforms. To get started in web3, I'd just start building and experimenting with things, and sharing the things you learn in public. From there, I'd identity a few communities that you'd like to be involved, and start meeting those people and consider applying for small grants. Landing a grant is a great way to get paid to learn, while also building relationships with a team.

Web3 is just another set of technologies that allow us to build things, in this case web, mobile, and financial applications as well as communities! I'm passionate about it and I think some of these ideas will make the world a better place. That being said, there are tons of other areas of specialization and expertise. I always recommend people research multiple areas and find the combination of opportunity and fulfillment and go with what is most interesting to them!

I am still working on my public speaking skills / technique. I have had some really great talks this year but also some that I'm not so proud of. If I had to pinpoint an 80/20 rule here, it would be around these two things: practice and experience, in that order. To prepare, I usually like to have either a really strong idea for a talk, or a really well received blog post, OSS project, or video to build upon. The more experience I have, the more I'm loving the blog post to conference pipeline. Finding an idea, then deep diving / exploring it as you write a blog post about it allows you to really learn something beyond the surface. From there, writing a talk becomes really easy as you've already solidified and crystalized your thoughts around the topic, and even have talking points to work with. I still get nervous sometimes, but only in rare situations (like a big keynote or something), but the anxiety has subsided quite a bit from where I was 5 years ago (but not completely gone 😅).