Pledge

A detailed guide to taking the .env pledge, a commitment to securing your private keys. The lesson covers the common mistakes developers make when storing private keys, the risks involved, and provides three secure methods of encrypting your private keys.

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Vyper Smart Contract Developer Intermediate Python and Vyper
1. A Message From Gmx
Learn more about GMX @ https://gmx.io. Duration: 0min
2. Intro
A practical guide to deploying your first smart contract with web3.py - This lesson walks you through how to deploy your smart contract using web3.py, including building a transaction, encrypting your private key, and deploying to the blockchain. Duration: 5min
3. Setup
A comprehensive guide to deploying a Vyper contract from Python code. This lesson covers how to leverage the UV tool to create a project structure and deploy your smart contract to a local blockchain. Duration: 6min
4. Vyper Extension
A comprehensive guide to using the Vyper VS Code Extension. This lesson demonstrates how to install the extension, integrate it with VS Code, and leverage its syntax highlighting and error detection features for efficient Vyper development. Duration: 2min
5. Compile Python
A practical guide to compiling a Vyper contract using the terminal - This lesson demonstrates two ways to install the Vyper compiler using your terminal (pipx install Vyper or uv tool install Vyper), explains how to check the compiler version, and provides a detailed explanation of the bytecode that is generated when you compile a Vyper contract. Duration: 3min
6. Virtual Environments
A comprehensive guide to understanding isolated virtual environments (UV tool install) - This lesson covers the basics of virtual environments, demonstrating how to install a Python tool into a virtual environment, and how the process differs from installing the tool into the global Python environment. It also explains why this approach is recommended. Duration: 8min
7. __name__
A practical guide to deploying a Vyper smart contract using Python. The lesson covers creating a new Python file for deployment, using the __name__ and __main__ convention, and activating the virtual environment. Duration: 4min
8. Vyper Package
A practical guide to using the Vyper compiler as a Python package. This lesson walks you through installing the Vyper package as a dependency, importing and using the compile_code function, and reading Vyper code from a file. Duration: 5min
9. VScode Py
A helpful guide to telling VS Code what your Python environment is. This lesson covers the basics of managing your Python environments in VS Code, including how to find the active environment, select a different interpreter, and manage your project dependencies. Duration: 3min
10. Web3 Py
A comprehensive introduction to Web3.py - Learn how to interact with the Ethereum blockchain using Python. This lesson introduces web3.py, a Python library for interacting with Ethereum, and shows how to create a contract object, deploy a contract, and interact with a contract instance. Duration: 6min
11. Breakpoint
A powerful Python tip to learn breakpoint() - Learn how to use the breakpoint() function to pause Python code execution and enter a debug shell to inspect variables, execute code, and troubleshoot problems. Duration: 2min
12. Anvil
A practical guide to installing Anvil for your local blockchain. This lesson teaches you how to set up Anvil, a powerful tool for Ethereum application development, and how to use its features. Duration: 5min
13. Anvil 2
A practical guide to using Anvil for testing your smart contracts - The lesson demonstrates how to run an Anvil instance for testing a Vyper smart contract. It covers the basics of interacting with the Anvil node, including connecting to it from your VS code and understanding its output. Duration: 2min
14. Tx
A comprehensive guide to building and signing Ethereum transactions. The lesson covers the essential components of a transaction, including the sender, recipient, value, nonce, gas limit, and the signing process. Duration: 5min
15. Tx Pt. 2
A detailed guide to crafting a manually created transaction (tx) in Python. The lesson covers how to set up a transaction object, understand the parameters of a transaction, and use the `build_transaction()` function to automatically populate a transaction. Duration: 5min
16. Tx Pt. 3
A practical guide to deploying a contract to the EVM - The video demonstrates the importance of having the "to" field blank in a transaction when deploying a contract to the EVM. It also explains why this field is important and how to update it to send data to a specific address. Duration: 2min
17. Nonce
A practical guide to setting the transaction nonce - This lesson demonstrates how to set the nonce for a transaction in Python, which is a unique identifier for the transaction. It explains the process of obtaining the nonce using web3.py and explores ways to customize the transaction object. Duration: 5min
18. Sign Tx
A comprehensive guide to signing a transaction object using Web3.py. The lesson demonstrates the importance of signing transactions with private keys for blockchain security and shows how to implement this process in Python code. Duration: 3min
19. Private Key Promise
A simple promise to secure your private keys - This video lesson emphasizes the importance of protecting private keys in the world of Web3. It provides a concrete example of how new developers often make mistakes when handling private keys, leading to potential loss of funds. Duration: 2min
20. ENV Vars
A comprehensive guide to loading environment variables in Python. The lesson covers the basics of setting up a .env file to securely store sensitive information, installing the python-dotenv package, and utilizing OS.getenv to read values from the .env file. Duration: 4min
21. Send Tx
A comprehensive guide to sending signed transactions and encrypting your private key. The lesson covers using Web3py to send transactions to an RPC URL and how to get a transaction hash in response. It also demonstrates how to use Web3py’s wait_for_transaction_receipt to ensure the transaction is confirmed and shows you how to retrieve the contract address. Duration: 3min
22. Encrypt
A practical guide to encrypting your keys in Python - This lesson will teach you how to encrypt your private key using Python and the getpass library. You'll learn to avoid storing your private key in plain text, and instead create a new file that will store it in an encrypted form. Duration: 9min
23. Decrypt
Duration: 5min
24. Pledge
A detailed guide to taking the .env pledge, a commitment to securing your private keys. The lesson covers the common mistakes developers make when storing private keys, the risks involved, and provides three secure methods of encrypting your private keys. Duration: 6min
25. Workshop
A practical workshop on deploying a Vyper smart contract to a tenderly RPC URL. This lesson explains the process of deploying a smart contract to a tenderly RPC URL, and how to interact with the contract on the blockchain. Duration: 4min
26. Recap
A comprehensive recap of deploying a Vyper smart contract - This lesson covers how to deploy a smart contract using the Vyper package in a Python script. Topics include compiling, connecting to an RPC URL, building the transaction, decrypting the private key, signing the transaction, and sending it to the blockchain. Duration: 7min

Course Overview

About the course

What you'll learn

Python basics

Introduction to Web3.py

Introduction to Titanoboa

Introduction to Moccasin

How to create an ERC-20

How to test Python code and Vyper smart contract

How to deploy Vyper smart contracts on ZKsync using Moccasin

Course Description

Who is this course for?

  • Software engineers
  • Web3 developers
  • Finance developers
  • AI developers
  • Everyone interested in learning Python and smart contracts

Potential Careers

Smart Contract Auditor

$100,000 - $200,000 (avg. salary)

On-chain Data Analyst

$59,000 - $139,000 (avg. salary)

DeFi Developer

$75,000 - $200,000 (avg. salary)

Smart Contract Engineer

$100,000 - $150,000 (avg. salary)

Web3 developer

$60,000 - $150,000 (avg. salary)

Web3 Developer Relations

$85,000 - $125,000 (avg. salary)

Meet your instructors

Patrick Collins

Patrick Collins

Founder at Cyfrin

Web3 engineer, educator, and Cyfrin co-founder. Patrick's smart contract development and security courses have helped hundreds of thousands of engineers kickstarting their careers into web3.

Last updated on November 7, 2025