Plenty of coding bootcamps exist for the Web2 set: Hack Reactor, Fullstack, and General Assembly, to name a few.
In Web3—a catchall term for a blockchain-based internet—there’s Encode Club, which just raised $5 million in a round led by Galaxy Digital and Lemniscap. The funding will help further develop Encode’s Web3 bootcamps, hackathons, and accelerator programs.
Dragonfly Ventures, Folius Ventures, not3lau Capital, and Ascensive Assets also participated in the funding round, along with angel investors like Gnosis co-founder Stefan George, 1inch’s Anton Bukov, and SolBigBrain.
Blockchain web development is different from traditional software engineering, in part because of the different programming languages used.
For example, Ethereum developers work in Solidity, a language for Ethereum smart contracts, while Solana devs write in Rust, a language also used for non-blockchain applications by companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. In contrast, Javascript and Python are among the most popular Web2 coding languages.
Because of this, it’s not exactly easy for a developer to make the switch to Web3 overnight. Encode Club CEO Anthony Beamont believes there is high demand for Web3 developers, but the lack of qualified talent is a big problem.
“As we look to the future of Web3, it is clear that we need hundreds and thousands more developers globally, and Encode Club stands ready to help enable this,” Beaumont said in a statement.
Encode has a range of different Web3 coding bootcamps for different blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Algorand. Their eight-week programs are competitive but free for those selected. Like traditional coding bootcamps, Encode helps participants find work after completion.
According to Encode’s website, applicants who already know another programming language like Javascript are more likely to be accepted.
In addition to its bootcamp offerings, Encode also runs 10-week hackathons for different blockchains and Web3 products—there are hackathons for Tezos and Polygon, as well as for NFTs and DAOs.