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My name is Sharon Jebitok, I’m a software developer but in the blockchain space as a smart contract developer focusing on building my solidity skills. I got to learn about bitcoin in 2018 when I was sitting next to a friend of mine back then who happened to be checking the localbitcoins.com site that was my first time seeing the word bitcoin and from there I grew my curiosity about it. I couldn’t ask my friend for more details about it. So I started looking more into bitcoin and since I was active on Twitter at that time I decide to follow people who were talking more about bitcoin like Anthony Pompliano among others. During that time I learned that bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and is under blockchain technology.
My curiosity just grew over time I understood how valuable bitcoin is. At that time one bitcoin was about Ksh 500, 000 up to 800, 000 and I thought one has to buy a whole bitcoin in order to hold some. So I was intrigued to find alternatives ways of being in the blockchain space instead of investing and that’s when I found out that bitcoin code is open-source and it requires developers to contribute to it. I felt this option was good for me but I had to build my skills to become a software developer.
I had just graduated from campus that year and I thought I only needed to go back to school to learn computer science in order to be a developer. Towards the end of 2019, I came across BootCamp training on Twitter. I checked their website and I was impressed by the courses they were offering especially the full-stack software developer course. From there I started learning software development and still trying to understand general about blockchain, how bitcoin works, and P2P trading among others.
In 2021 I started attending short courses and hackathons linked to blockchain development. The main aim was to get the basics of solidity, smart contract development, and different Blockchain networks and use-cases. At the start of this year is where I took learning smart contract development seriously and it's been an amazing experience. Hoping to still grow my skills and eventually get involved in Web3 stuff more.
Being a lady in the tech space has been amazing especially since tech and mostly blockchain communities are open to everyone no matter your gender, race, age, employment status, or native language. Most communities also have a code of conduct that allows every feel free and welcome.
Blockchain plays a major role in transforming the financial and economic growth of every nation and individual all over the world. With blockchain main use-cases like:
Cryptocurrencies, majorly Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin is highly likely to be adopted as legal tender for most countries or local governments in the coming years like El Salvador and states like Miami, Florida, etc in the USA that already use cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin already as means of tax payment, tax-evasion for bitcoin miners and legal tender for the case of El Salvador.
Ethereum blockchain is highly used in smart contract development majorly on blockchain use-cases like Decentralized finance(Defi) that enable modern-day banking where people of different races, gender, work status, age, etc can easily access staking, lending, and other banking services over the blockchain.
Entertainment is at the center of our day-to-day lives and with the rise of blockchain use-cases like the Metaverse and NFTs that have been highly receptive by artists, musicians, and a lot of people in society. The Non-Fungible Tokens(NFTs) push for the interaction of products like art, music, real estate, etc that have intellectual property rights and have it represented as NFTs over the internet(blockchain) and owners can sells and buyers can resell or HODL to get the value of the non-fungible tokens.
The blockchain-driven metaverse on the other hand is taking game development/gaming and NFTs to the next level and bringing virtual reality into life by introducing the users to the virtual worlds and bringing user-generated content as key as that’s what is driving the world at the moment.
The blockchain is generating career and opportunities for the next generation of the internet through the chance for individuals to come up with ideas or build projects that use blockchain technology and can be used by other people or in real-day life. These careers include smart contract developers, UI/UX designers, cloud computing experts, DevOps engineers, cyber-security engineers/auditors, marketers, blockchain consultants, startup founders, DAO contributors, Angel Investors, gamers, educators, etc
Blockchain features make blockchain a trust machine as all transactions are recorded on a public ledger that anyone can access, transactions on the blockchain like bitcoin are peer-to-peer no third parties, the data on the blockchain are immutable, blockchain is not owned by any owner the code on the blockchain are open-source.
Bitcoin uses distributed ledger technology i.e distributed storage, and public ledgers (it's open to everyone), prevents double-spending and is immutable to hacks difficult for hackers to modify transactions. Even though blockchain is prone to hacks it's minimal, and smart contract code undergoes a lot of smart contract audits before deploying on the main net to prevent this.