Two weeks ago, we published a new article about Alyra’s Blockchain training process. As promised, in the following lines I will give you a summary of the concepts covered in the past two weeks.
Alya talks
Alyra talks play an essential role in my training titled “Leading an innovative project”. They allow students to meet industry professionals and discuss interesting topics. But more than that, they allow you to experience the reality of practicing professions in the blockchain value chain.
CAD maker
The 5th week Alyra talk was an opportunity for us to discuss with Serge Petroff, DeFi consultant at DAO Maker.
After giving us a brief overview of his academic background and the reasons that led him to the crypto industry, Serge spoke to us extensively about DAO Maker’s activities. DAO Maker is indeed a launchpad, one of the oldest on the market. Founded in 2018, this fundraising platform offers early exposure to certain projects deemed relevant and makes it possible to invest in them even before they are listed on the stock exchanges.
More concretely, users who want to invest in the projects must stake DAO tokens on the platform. The users most likely to be chosen as early investors in a project are obviously those who have staked the most tokens.
Finally, Serge gave us some advice. Above all, he invited us to show pragmatism and perseverance if we want to be successful in the industry.
An Alyra lecture on NFTs
As part of the 6th week talk, Alyra welcomed Félicie le Dragon. She is an NFT and Metaverse Marketing Advisor for her consulting firm NFT Madam and co-founder of NFT Factory. Based in Paris, the company specializes in education about NFTs and the development of projects related to their popularization. The expert is firmly convinced that only education and research in this area will make it possible to stimulate it in the future. Moreover, it indicates that the real players of tomorrow in this field are those who position themselves in it today.
“Tomorrow’s ecosystem will be created by those who own it”she hammered.
Felicie the Dragon is a “crypto enthusiast” NFT and metaverse version. In particular, she drew students’ attention to the arrival of big brands in the metaverse, to indicate the potential it brings, before urging us to take an interest in it.
In addition, the expert gave three important tips for people interested in blockchain. According to her, you have to impose your idea. “If you have an idea, it’s because you move with the times and respond to a need. But for an idea to succeed, it is necessary to have arguments to defend it”she explained.
She then advised to be persistent and flexible, as no branch of new technologies is more scalable than blockchain. Perseverance and flexibility above all require constant learning in order not to be overwhelmed by the rapid evolution of the sector.
Finally, she said it’s important to focus on the essentials because there are too many opportunities in the blockchain to grab. Basically, you should focus on what really interests you, at the risk of spreading yourself too thin.
A look back at the past two weeks
In our last article about Alyra training, we discussed on the one hand the reasons why blockchains came into being. On the other hand, we talked about the spirit and characteristic of blockchain, with a nod to the flagship crypto, bitcoin (BTC). This time it was about discovering the architecture and operation of a blockchain, the anatomy of a block and the Ethereum blockchain. In particular, we have studied the reasons why it is the No. 1 blockchain for decentralized applications (DApps).
Architecture and operation of a blockchain
This module is essentially intended to educate students about the technical workings of a blockchain. You should know that at this level, the issues of mining, its importance, but also the operation of a mining company have been discussed extensively. The course enabled us to learn more about the economic model of this activity, as well as the technical details (hash rate, energy challenges, yields) and the issues it faces. To illustrate this development, we studied, among other things, a world map of mining produced by the University of Cambridge. The module also made it possible to identify opportunities in this segment.
Anatomy of a block
We also learned that blocks are at the heart of blockchain technology. The blocks, linked together to form the blockchain, optimize the transaction validation process. They follow precise rules specific to each ecosystem, known as “consensus.” It is a key concept in understanding the blockchain. Consensus makes it possible, among other things, to resist attacks, to make the network fair and just for the various stakeholders, to ensure the irrevocability of transactions and to promote an incentive and a cooperative economic regime.
At this level, we have discussed the specifics of the block concept in two parts. These are Merkle’s block header and root, two elements that enable optimal reading of blockchain data. The first is used to identify a particular block in an entire blockchain. The second is a structure that groups all transactions to identify all the information in each transaction in as much detail as possible.
Ethereum, the application-oriented blockchain
After studying bitcoin in the previous modules, an entire module gives us the opportunity to learn more about Ethereum and Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency in the ecosystem by market capitalization. This dive into the heart of Ethereum can be considered the practical part of everything we’ve seen above, but with a few exceptions.
It should be noted that Ethereum naturally attracts developers (Dapps), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance companies (DeFi), and NFT marketplaces due to its arsenal of offerings and its technical flexibility. Today, it is one of the ecosystems that most attracts the various stakeholders in the blockchain value chain. These assets are why Ethereum is increasingly regarded as the blockchain with the greatest potential. Some believe it may be more important than Bitcoin in the future.
Alyra’s live experts
The Alyra talks are not the only opportunities we have to interact with experts in the cryptosphere, there are also the Live Experts. I have not mentioned them in my previous posts. Fortunately, it’s never too late to get it right.
If the Alyra talks take place on Monday, the Live Experts will meanwhile be held on Thursday. It is up to the expert Fanis Michalakis who has returned the task of animating those of these last two weeks. Fanis is a blockchain developer, he knows what’s under the hood. He explained to us in detail the history, and even the “prehistory” of Bitcoin, how it works concretely and why it is better to use your own node. The expert also presented us with the classic route of a bitcoin transaction, from the construction to the distribution of the block.
To conclude
After 6 weeks my impressions have not changed. If you’ve been following me from the start of this journey, you probably know my stance on training” Leading an innovative project », from Alyra, the training for future blockchain consultants. On the other hand, if this article is the first of the series you are reading, do not hesitate to read my first and my second text. You will discover behind the scenes of the first 4 weeks of classes and my feeling about the richness, but also the amount of work this training represents.
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Far from dampening my enthusiasm, a failed investment in a cryptocurrency in 2017 only added to my enthusiasm. I therefore decided to study and understand the blockchain and its many applications and to pass on information about this ecosystem with my pen.