Blockchain

roadmap.sh: https://roadmap.sh/blockchain

Suggested path through the Blockchain nodes. Each node links to its lesson when written.

Nodes

Fundamentals

• What is a blockchain
• Distributed ledger technology
• Centralized vs decentralized vs distributed
• Blocks, chains & hashing
• Merkle trees
• Public vs private vs consortium blockchains
• Nodes & the peer-to-peer network
• Immutability & transparency
• History of blockchain (Bitcoin, Ethereum)

Cryptography

• Hash functions (SHA-256, Keccak)
• Public-key cryptography
• Digital signatures (ECDSA)
• Asymmetric encryption
• Wallets, keys & addresses
• Mnemonic seed phrases (BIP-39)
• HD wallets (BIP-32 / BIP-44)

Consensus mechanisms

• Proof of Work
• Proof of Stake
• Delegated Proof of Stake
• Proof of Authority
• Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT)
• Mining & validators
• Forks (hard vs soft)
• The blockchain trilemma

Bitcoin

• How Bitcoin works
• UTXO model
• Bitcoin Script
• Halving & monetary policy
• Lightning Network

Ethereum

• Accounts model (EOA vs contract)
• Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
• Gas & gas fees
• Transactions & nonces
• Ether & wei
• The Merge & Ethereum roadmap
• Layer 2 scaling (rollups, optimistic, ZK)

Smart contracts

• What is a smart contract
• Solidity language
• Vyper language
• Contract structure & data types
• Functions, modifiers & events
• Storage vs memory vs calldata
• Inheritance & interfaces
• Token standards (ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155)
• Upgradeable contracts & proxies
• Oracles (Chainlink)

Development tools

• Remix IDE
• Hardhat
• Foundry
• Truffle
• Ganache
• ethers.js / web3.js
• Wallets (MetaMask)
• Testnets & faucets
• Block explorers (Etherscan)
• IPFS & decentralized storage

dApps & Web3

• What is a dApp
• Connecting a frontend to the blockchain
• Web3 libraries & providers
• Reading & writing contract state
• Listening to events
• The Graph (indexing)
• Wallet connection (WalletConnect)

DeFi & ecosystem

• Decentralized finance (DeFi)
• DEXs & automated market makers
• Lending & borrowing protocols
• Stablecoins
• Yield farming & liquidity pools
• NFTs
• DAOs
• Bridges & cross-chain

Security

• Reentrancy attacks
• Integer overflow / underflow
• Front-running & MEV
• Access control flaws
• Flash loan attacks
• Auditing & testing contracts
• OpenZeppelin libraries
• Common vulnerability checklists (SWC)

Other platforms & advanced

• Solana
• Polkadot
• Cosmos
• Hyperledger Fabric
• Zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs / zk-STARKs)
• Tokenomics
• Regulation & compliance

Resources

See resources.md.

Project ideas

• Write, test and deploy an ERC-20 token to a testnet using Foundry or Hardhat, then verify it on Etherscan.
• Build a minimal NFT minting dApp: an ERC-721 contract plus a React frontend connected via ethers.js and MetaMask.
• Implement a simple blockchain in Python or TypeScript from scratch (blocks, hashing, proof-of-work, chain validation) to internalize the data structure.