Welcome to Solidity Fridays! This is a structured weekly plan to help you learn Solidity, the programming language used to write smart contracts on Ethereum and EVM compatible chains. Each week, we’ll cover a new topic, gradually building your skills from beginner to advanced.
Week 1: Introduction to Solidity and Blockchain Basics
- Evolution of the Web: Web1, Web2, and Web3
- Overview of blockchain and Ethereum.
- Smart contracts: What they are and why they matter.
- Setting up your development environment (Remix IDE, MetaMask, and Node.js).
This lesson covers the evolution of the web (Web1, Web2, Web3), blockchain fundamentals, wallets, Ethereum smart contracts, and Solidity programming.
- Read-only web where users could only consume content.
- Static websites with minimal interaction.
- Examples: Yahoo, early blogs, and company websites.
- Read and write capabilities, allowing user-generated content.
- Centralized platforms control data (Facebook, Google, Twitter).
- Monetization through ads and data collection.
- Problems: Privacy issues, censorship, platform dependence.
- Built on blockchain and smart contracts.
- Users own their data, assets, and identities.
- Peer-to-peer interactions without intermediaries.
- Examples: Ethereum-based DApps, DAOs, DeFi, NFTs.
Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions securely and transparently.
- Decentralization – No central authority.
- Transparency – Publicly accessible transactions.
- Security – Cryptographic encryption ensures integrity.
- Immutability – Transactions cannot be altered once confirmed.
- Public Blockchains (Ethereum, Bitcoin) – Open networks, permissionless access.
- Private Blockchains (Hyperledger) – Restricted access for enterprises.
- Consortium Blockchains – Controlled by multiple entities.
A crypto wallet allows users to store, send, and receive digital assets.
- Custodial Wallets – Centralized control (e.g., Binance, Coinbase).
- Non-Custodial Wallets – User-controlled keys (e.g., MetaMask, Trust Wallet).
- Hardware Wallets – Secure offline storage (e.g., Ledger, Trezor).
- Wallet Address – Public identifier for receiving funds.
- Private Key – Secret code controlling wallet access.
- A decentralized smart contract platform.
- Uses Ether (ETH) as the native cryptocurrency.
- Supports ERC20 (tokens) and ERC721 (NFTs).
- Decentralized Finance (DeFi) – Lending, borrowing, staking.
- NFTs – Digital ownership of assets.
- DAOs – Community-driven governance.
A high-level language for writing smart contracts on Ethereum, similar to JavaScript and Python.
- Open Remix.
- Create a new Solidity file (
.sol). - Compile and deploy using MetaMask.
- Book: Mastering Ethereum by Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood (Chapter 1: Introduction to Ethereum).
- Online Resources: Solidity Documentation.
- Tools: Install Remix IDE and MetaMask.
Week 2: Solidity Fundamentals
- Basic syntax and structure of a Solidity contract.
- Data types:
uint,address,bool,string, etc. - Variables: State variables, local variables, and constants.
- Functions: Visibility (
public,private,internal,external), and modifiers.
- Book: Mastering Ethereum (Chapter 7: Smart Contracts and Solidity).
- Practice: Write a simple "Hello World" contract in Remix IDE.
Week 3: Advanced Data Structures
- Arrays: Fixed-size and dynamic arrays.
- Structs: Custom data types.
- Mappings: Key-value pairs.
- Enums: User-defined types for constants.
- Book: Mastering Ethereum (Chapter 7: Smart Contracts and Solidity).
- Practice: Create a contract that stores and retrieves user data using structs and mappings.
Week 4: Control Structures and Error Handling
- Conditional statements:
if,else,else if. - Loops:
for,while. - Error handling:
require,assert,revert.
- Online Resources: Solidity by Example.
- Practice: Write a contract that implements a basic voting system with error handling.
Week 5: Function Modifiers and Events
- Function modifiers:
view,pure,payable. - Custom modifiers.
- Events: Logging and listening to events.
- Book: Mastering Ethereum (Chapter 7: Smart Contracts and Solidity).
- Practice: Add events to your voting contract to log votes.
Week 6: Inheritance and Interfaces
- Inheritance:
iskeyword, parent and child contracts. - Abstract contracts.
- Interfaces: Defining and implementing interfaces.
- Online Resources: Solidity Documentation.
- Practice: Create a parent contract with shared functionality and a child contract that inherits from it.
Week 7: Security Best Practices
- Common vulnerabilities: Reentrancy, integer overflow, and more.
- Security tools: Slither, MythX.
- Writing secure code.
- Book: Mastering Ethereum (Chapter 9: Smart Contract Security).
- Online Resources: Consensys Smart Contract Best Practices.
- Practice: Audit a simple contract for vulnerabilities.
Week 8: Deploying and Interacting with Contracts
- Deploying contracts to testnets (Ropsten, Rinkeby, etc.).
- Interacting with contracts using Web3.js or Ethers.js.
- Gas optimization techniques.
- Book: Mastering Ethereum (Chapter 10: Tokens).
- Tools: Infura, Alchemy, or Hardhat for deployment.
- Practice: Deploy your voting contract to a testnet and interact with it using a simple frontend.
Week 9: Tokens and Standards
- ERC-20: Fungible tokens.
- ERC-721: Non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
- ERC-1155: Multi-token standard.
- Book: Mastering Ethereum (Chapter 10: Tokens).
- Practice: Create and deploy your own ERC-20 token.
Week 10: Advanced Topics and Final Project
- Upgradeable contracts using proxies.
- Layer 2 solutions: Optimism, Arbitrum.
- Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
- Book: Mastering Ethereum (Chapter 11: Oracles and Chapter 12: Decentralized Applications).
- Final Project: Build and deploy a decentralized application (dApp) that incorporates everything you’ve learned.
- Books:
- Mastering Ethereum by Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood.
- Solidity Programming Essentials by Ritesh Modi.
- Online Courses:
- Communities:
- Ethereum Stack Exchange.
- Reddit: r/ethdev.
- Discord: Ethereum Developer Community.
By following this Solidity Fridays schedule, you’ll gain a solid understanding of Solidity and Ethereum development. Happy coding! 🚀
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