Udacity Rolls Out New Mobile Payments Skills Course in Blockchain Engineering

For those who follow the mobile payment market, you know what kind of a development cryptocurrency is turning out to be. Moreover, you also know the importance of blockchain not only as a part of cryptocurrency but also as a part of several other fintech developments. Now, Udacity recently dropped word our way about its newly-launched program, the Udacity Blockchain Developer Nanodegree.

Launched at the Future of Fintech conference, the course gives students exposure to creating their own blockchain for data storage and management, as well as creating smart contracts with Ethereum’s primary language, Solidity. Students will even set up their own supply chain management web app backed up by blockchain power.

That’s a lot of ground to cover, and it will be covered with video lessons and code-level review. The course runs for two three-month terms, costing $999 apiece, and classes will start July 10. Students will even get the chance to set up weekly office hours with a slate of experts in the field, including DECENT’s chief technology officer and co-founder Adam Gall. Also included Factom software developer Matt Whittington and MadHive software engineer Connor Yanz, among others.

With Toptal noting that blockchain engineering is up 700 percent, and Upwork calling blockchain the fastest-growing skill in tech, there certainly does look like a demand afoot for blockchain engineers. We know that blockchain has proven important in not just cryptocurrency, but on several other fronts, making it a likely target for future engineers to know about. It’s always helpful when a technology has more than one application; too specialized a technology and it’s likely to not be worth learning; it’s too easily rendered moot or obsolete by advances in the field.

Still, Udacity’s new program should draw plenty of interest, and help fuel the next generation of blockchain developers. The combination of hands-on development—that will even generate a tangible product before its conclusion—and expert support (assuming those experts are sufficiently available) may well make this $2,000 investment worthwhile.