Blockchain Developer   
Become a blockchain developer 
 

TERM 1: FUNDAMENTALS 

Project 1: Managing your Blockchain Identity 

Blockchains are a public record of completed value transactions. These transactions often contain sensitive 
data such as personally identifiable information—so how does the blockchain secure against this 
information leaking into the wrong hands? In this project, you will get a chance to create your own 
blockchain “identity” and see how it is used to solve this issue.  
 
Your blockchain “identity” is an encrypted private-public key pair that allows you to anonymously interact 
with information on the blockchain while still allowing others to verify your data. In this project, you will 
generate a private-public key pair and learn how to use it to securely authenticate your identity for the 
transactions you post. 

Supporting Lesson Content: Blockchain ID 

Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

BLOCKCHAIN BASICS  ➔ Learn to identify the purposes and characteristics of blockchain, 

bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies 
➔ Be able to explain core components that make a blockchain 
secure and powerful 
➔ Learn to diagram the relationship between a private key, public 
key, and wallet address 
➔ Create a new wallet, and restore a wallet using wallet words and 
private keys 

MANAGING BLOCKCHAIN  ➔ Learn how a simple transaction occurs between 2 entities (e.g. 
TRANSACTIONS  Bob and Alice) using a private key, public key, wallet, and a 
public blockchain 
➔ Learn to manage blockchain identity and establish proof of 
ownership with blockchain transactions, without the need to 
provide sensitive information.  
Project 2: Creating Your Own Private Blockchain 
A blockchain is essentially a shared database that features added immutability as a safe and accurate 
alternative to existing data storage methods. You’ll learn the nuts-and-bolts of how the blockchain data 
model works by creating your own private blockchain.  
 
In this project, you will learn the fundamentals of architecting a collection of data into a blockchain data 
model. You'll configure how each block stores data, learn how blocks are validated in order to add new ones 
to the chain, and create methods to validate the chain integrity.  

Supporting Lesson Content: Blockchain Data 

Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

BLOCKCHAIN: DATA  ➔ Learn to describe the general concepts of a blockchain data 

OVERVIEW  model 

BLOCKCHAIN 
➔ Be able to identify the tooling available to explore the Bitcoin 
INTERACTION: BITCOIN 
CORE INTRO 
Core public blockchain 

  ➔ Be able to explain the benefits of utilizing the Bitcoin Core 

BLOCKCHAIN  testnet 
INTERACTION: BITCOIN  ➔ Understand the difference between the public testnet and 
CORE TESTNET 
regression testing 

➔ Be able to diagram the relationship between the transaction 

BLOCKCHAIN DATA  lifecycle using Bitcoin Core, focusing on the bounders with 
embedding data 

BLOCKCHAIN 
➔ Learn how to explain the value of a private blockchain, and 
INTERACTION: PRIVATE 
BLOCKCHAINS 
prepare for the course project  

Project 3: Migrate Your Private Blockchain to Your API Web Service 

For a private blockchain to be valuable, it will need to integrate with a web service so the information is 
consumable for client applications.  
 
For this project, you'll create a back end API web service and migrate your private blockchain to the web 
service you create. In the process, you'll learn how to post new blocks to the blockchain via a RESTful web 
client, and learn how to validate blockchain health. By the end of the project, your private blockchain will 
transform into a valuable web service.  

Supporting Lesson Content: Blockchain Web Services 

 Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

BLOCKCHAIN WEB  ➔ Learn how to use and build blockchain web services with Bitcoin 
SERVICES  Core Remote Procedure Call utilizing Node.js. 
➔ Understand the difference between debug and terminal 
consoles 

Project 4: Build Your Own Private Blockchain Notary Service 

One of the most important features of a blockchain that ensures data security is the ability for a transaction 
on the blockchain to be signed and validated. Given the distributed nature of blockchain, signing and 
validation are vital to securing information.   
 
Data stored on a blockchain can vary from digital assets (e.g. documents, media) to copyrights and patent 
ownership. These pieces of data need to be reliably secured, and require a way to prove they exist—this is 
where signing and validation are key.  
 
For this project, you will build a blockchain notary service API that can be used to secure digital assets. The 
project will focus on building out the back end infrastructure with a pre-developed front end. You will learn 
how to encrypt and decrypt the target data (into a digest) and how to publicly prove who rightfully owns it. 
You will also configure your notary web service using a RESTful web client to post new blocks to the 
blockchain. Along the way, you will also explore how to handle the limitations of block size when handling 
digital data.   

Supporting Lesson Content: Blockchain Web Services 

Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

  ➔ Be able to explain how to implement blockchain identity services 

BLOCKCHAIN WEB  to secure data with a blockchain web service 
SERVICES: IDENTITY  ➔ Learn the various generations of blockchains platforms  
 

Project 5: Build Your Own Notarization API with Ethereum 

Blockchain 
Here, we will move from Bitcoin to Ethereum blockchain. You will build a smart contract, create a notary 
service, and deploy it on Ethereum blockchain. This service is designed to demonstrate how to secure any 
digital asset (not limited to a document, deed, agreement, media, etc.) and implement proof of existence on 
blockchain. This service will include third party libraries to interface with the smart contract and Ethereum 
blockchain. 
 
You will build the necessary back end infrastructure for the notary service with a pre-developed front end. 
This will enable you to render the service on any modern web clients. 

Supporting Lesson Content: Blockchain Smart Contracts 

Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

BLOCKCHAIN: SMART  ➔ Be able to create a smart contract on Ethereum. Understand the 

CONTRACTS  various service layers of a smart contract platform 
  ➔ Learn Solidity, a Turing complete smart contract language  

➔ Understand how to establish Ethereum identity to implement a 

BLOCKCHAIN: IDENTITY &  simple, smart contract on the Ethereum platform 
SMART CONTRACTS  ➔ Learn how to embed transaction data while interacting with 
smart contracts 

TERM 2: ARCHITECTURE & APPLICATIONS 

Project 6: Architecture 
In the project, you will work to improve your notarization service with new functionality by revisiting the 
architecture. 
 
Your notarization service architecture will utilize the addition of a relational database to include storage of 
raw data, metadata, transactional information, and indexing.  
 
You will have the opportunity to control the execution of your smart contract and reduce the dependency of 
client side services that interact with your smart contract. In this project, you will create your own 
decentralized full node and interface back end services to integrate with the Ethereum network to sign 
transactions, improve functionality, and control trust.  

Supporting Lesson Content: Architecture 

Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

THE FIVE INGREDIENTS OF 

A BLOCKCHAIN  ➔ Be able to identify the five ingredients of a blockchain  
 

PLANNING BLOCKCHAIN 
➔ Learn to design supporting visuals with Unified Modeling 
SOLUTIONS WITH LEGACY 
SYSTEMS 
Language (UML)  

SECURITY & 
➔ Learn to identify architecture security and maintenance risks  
MAINTENANCE 
 SELECTING THE RIGHT 
➔ Be able to describe the correct technology stack to layer services 
TECHNOLOGY STACK FOR 
THE PROJECT 
and provide software solutions  

Project 7: Supply Chain & Data Auditing 

A notarization service is a great way to prove ownership of a physical good and/or a digital asset. 
 
What happens when we need to notarize products as they move from location A to B, changing hands and 
ownership for a period of time, as they take part in a supply chain?  
 
In the project, you will modify your smart contract to support change of ownership, timestamp when this 
event occurs, and report auditing as required, as your notarized product moves through the supply chain. 

Supporting Lesson Content: Supply Chain & Data Auditing 

Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

PRIVATE & PUBLIC 

➔ Get an overview of private and public chains—the pros and 
CHAINS 
 
cons, and tooling  

➔ Explore methods to support transferring product ownership and 

account control list 
ASSET MANAGEMENT 
➔ Learn the importance of account control lists to permissioning 
your dataset 

➔ Learn how to implement auditing methods between localized 

AUDITING DATA 
datasets with a blockchain platform 

Project 8: Capstone Project 

Use the skills you’ve learned on how to architect, build, test, and ship a blockchain product, to build your 
own public blockchain project.  
 
For your chosen industry and customer need, you will work end to end from building your architecture 
(centralised, decentralised), and choosing your technology stack (front end, back end), to surfacing the 
protocol and blockchain features to the DApp layer, to experimenting, learning, and collaborating with other 
open-source projects to complete your project. 
 
You will showcase your project with all of the assets (personas, architecture, data model, front end, back 
end, smart contract, etc.) that are built. 

Supporting Lesson Content: Capstone 

Lesson Title  Learning Outcomes 

SUPPLY CHAIN & 

DISTRIBUTION OF  ➔ Be able to identify the benefits of using a public blockchain to 
PRODUCTS & SERVICES  support distribution channels  
 

➔ Learn to design supporting visuals with Unified Modeling 

CAPSTONE PROJECT PREP 
Language (UML)