## Welcome to Blockchain Basics: Your First Step into Web3 Welcome to the Blockchain Basics course on Cyfrin Updraft! We are your instructors, Ciara Nightingale and Patrick Collins, and we are thrilled to guide you on your journey into the world of Web3. Our goal with this course is simple but ambitious: to take you from a complete beginner with zero prior knowledge to a competent Web3 professional, ready to tackle the next steps in your career. This course is the essential foundation for anyone looking to enter this exciting and rapidly growing industry. My name is Patrick Collins, and I'm the co-founder of Cyfrin. For over four years, I've had the privilege of teaching blockchain and smart contract development to millions of people. My Solidity smart contract courses are the most-watched in the world, with over 6 million views, and have helped countless students land full-time roles in the Web3 space. As a smart contract engineer and security researcher, I've seen firsthand the immense opportunities this field holds. And I'm Ciara Nightingale, a Lead Instructor here at Cyfrin. My own journey into Web3 started with an earlier version of this very course. It was a transformative experience that ignited my passion for cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs and ultimately led me to where I am today. My goal is to make the complex world of blockchain accessible and exciting for everyone, just as it was for me. ### Who Is This Course For? We have designed this course to be the single best starting point for anyone interested in blockchain technology. You do not need any background in coding, computer science, or finance. This course is for you if you are: * **An Absolute Beginner:** You've heard terms like "blockchain," "crypto," or "NFT" but have no idea what they mean. We start from the absolute beginning. * **An Aspiring Technical Professional:** You want to become a Smart Contract Developer, Blockchain Engineer, Solutions Architect, or Security Researcher. This course is the mandatory first step, providing the foundational knowledge all technical roles are built upon. * **An Aspiring Non-Technical Professional:** You're interested in roles like Ecosystem Growth, Product Management, or other business-focused positions. A deep understanding of the underlying technology is critical to success in these roles. * **An Experienced Developer:** You may be a proficient developer in Web2 but are new to the decentralized world. This course will fill in the conceptual gaps and get you up to speed on the fundamentals. * **The Curious:** You simply want to understand one of the most significant technological shifts of our generation. This is an entirely **non-technical course**. We will not be writing a single line of code. The focus is purely on understanding the concepts, the technology, and the ecosystem. ### What You Will Learn This course provides a comprehensive overview of the core components of the Web3 landscape. We will demystify the technology and show you how all the pieces fit together. By the end, you will have a deep understanding of: * **What blockchains are** and the fundamental principles that make them work. * **Core concepts** like smart contracts, node operators, and the true meaning of decentralization. * **Key sectors of the Web3 ecosystem**, including Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Think of blockchain as the foundational infrastructure, like the internet's TCP/IP protocol. Web3 is the new era of applications and services built on top of this infrastructure. Smart contracts are the programs that run on the blockchain, enabling the creation of complex applications like those found in DeFi and the NFT market. This course will connect all these dots for you. The career potential in this field is enormous. The demand for skilled professionals far outstrips the supply, leading to incredible opportunities. To give you an idea, the average salary for a Smart Contract Engineer in the US is **$145,000 per year**, and for a Security Researcher, it's **$130,000 per year**. This course is your first step on that lucrative career path. ### How to Get the Most Out of This Course You are currently on the Cyfrin Updraft platform, the #1 leading blockchain education platform. We’ve structured the learning experience to be as intuitive as possible. Our content is organized into: 1. **Courses:** Broad topics, like this one, Blockchain Basics. 2. **Sections:** Groups of related lessons within a course. 3. **Lessons:** Individual, bite-sized learning modules. For every lesson, you have two ways to learn: you can watch the video or read the complete written lesson right below it. This allows you to learn in the style that suits you best. If you are a beginner, we strongly recommend you proceed through the course sequentially, from the first lesson to the last. Each lesson builds on the previous one, and skipping ahead can leave you with critical gaps in your knowledge. *A note for our YouTube viewers: If you are watching this as one long video on YouTube, we highly encourage you to switch over to the official **Cyfrin Updraft** platform. There, you'll get the full experience with structured lessons, written content, quizzes, and a supportive community.* Throughout our courses, we will also teach you how to leverage AI tools to accelerate your learning. However, we also stress the importance of having strong foundational knowledge. AI can be a powerful assistant, but it can also be incorrect. Your understanding from this course will enable you to fact-check and effectively guide AI, making you a more efficient and capable professional. If you ever need help, our community is here for you. You can join our **Discord** for support, and all additional materials can be found in our **GitHub Repo**. Let's begin.