I've created this repository with the sole purpose of centralizing various pieces of information that I've deemed useful while learning about blockchain development.

I recommend working with Solidity for writing smart contracts. There are plenty of examples of smart contracts written is Solidity and the language itself is rather straight forward. The documentation is also very comprehensive and Stack Overflow will probably answer 90% of the questions about the language and its features.

There are multiple ways to setup an environment for writing and testing Solidity smart contracts. You can even do it directly in the browser, without having to install anything on your local system.

• Remix - in-browser IDE. You can write, deploy and interact with contracts directly from your browser, without any kind of local setup
• Hardhat - Local environment. Developer quality of life oriented environment. Provides a local Eth network, debugging capabilities and extensibility through plugins
• Truffle + Ganache

My personal recommendation for the dev env would be Remix for drafting some basic contracts and Hardhat for local development and deployment

I would go for a relatively lightweight JavaScript library or framework in order to build the client facing apps that will interact with your smart contracts. Valid options:

• React
• Next.js
• Angular
• Vue.js

My personal recommendation for the frontend tech choice would be either React or Next.js

JavaScript vs TypeScript - Totally go for TypeScript if you have some degree of familiarity with it or you're going for production-level quality. For hackathons or simple starting-out applications, JavaScript would be a better option because of the Ts introduces overhead and has a bigger dev-time cost.

In order to read data and send transactions to your deployed contracts, you will need a way to interact with the blockchain. There are 2 popular library options designed for this:

• ethers.js - newer, better structure, cleaner overall
• web3.js - larger developer community, more guides

Important: As of the time of writing this document, these 2 libraries are the industry standard and the only options that I know about.

Both options are pretty well documented and offer pretty similar functionality overall.

My personal preference is ethers.js

• useWeb3.xyz - courses, guides, books, videos, everything can be found here
• Ethereum page tutorials - many topics
• Buildspace - tutorials, online workshops, discord community, requires an account
• Guide to Full Stack Ethereum Development by Nader Dabit - Great all rounded tutorial for creating a simple end-to-end dApp with Hardhat, React and ethers.js. Also has a video version of it if you're not into reading.
• CryptoZombies - Interactive online course on building DApps

I will add more stuff here over time

Important: If you're an absolute beginer, check out Nader Dabit's tutorial. It will give you a hands-on experience and overview of how things are set-up and work.