Hola amigos,
I am quite excited about having completed The Deep Blockchain Fundamentals course by Ivan Liljeqvist (@ivanli) this week. I mean look at this beauty!
You can officially call me a geek now
In this previous post I already shared with you my enthusiasm regarding cryptocurrencies, the Blockchain technology and identified Ivan as a reference in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. So it is only logical that I wanted to share my unbiased review and the relevant teachings of the course with you.
Before we move on what is Blockchain Technology again Jonathan? The Blockchain, the underlying technology for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is a decentralized and immutable ledger of transactions. Put more simply : An open source and decentralized public database where all operations/transactions are validated. Every transaction is unique and cannot be erased, unlike in a central server controlled by one entity. The blockchain removes the need for a third party as the network serves as verification.
Ivan On Tech
Who is the man behind Ivan on Tech? Ivan is a cool 21 year-old (!) entrepreneur from Sweden (and originally Belarus), he is a software developer, runs the Ivan on Tech Youtube channel - one of the most successful and trusted blockchain channels (150K subscribers) - and is also an international blockchain speaker and educator. I stumbled upon his channel as I was trying to understand more about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology. As a non-tech person myself I found his videos comprehensive and most importantly I immediately felt his genuine enthusiasm and passion for the technology. You can see for yourself, he has a great talent for teaching and educating. His goal is to spread knowledge about the Blockchain Technology in order to help us and businesses understand what Blockchain is all about but in addition to emphasize on the positive aspects of the technology to solve issues such as poverty, banking the unbanked, financial inclusion...
He has definitely made a name for himself and has become an absolute reference in the space.
The course and some of the teachings for you
Ivan and his team created the course Deep Blockchain Fundamentals and I thought this could be great for me to have all the essential knowledge packed in a logical manner. My only "fear" was that it would be too technical but from the information I gathered throughout his videos and the sales information page, the course would be accessible for "noobs" like me as well. I already trusted the man, he deserves my money and the course was on sale so what was I waiting for? I registered!
My goals with the course were threefold :
- Depending on where my career takes me, get the necessary knowledge (know more than the average Joe) to be ready and get on board quickly with the changes in the future. I am passionate about Personal Finance and am an experienced Procurement professional. The Blockchain technology will impact those two areas for sure and the knowledge might open new opportunities as new jobs will appear.
- Expand my knowledge on what is happening "under the hood" of cryptocurrencies as an investor.
- My sincere wish is also to be able to use the technology for good with other likeminded people in a social project. I am thinking more concretely to develop micro financing projects backed by technology (this could be adding technology to an existing association as well for example).
Have those goals been met? Let's dive into my experience!
Global impression and main takeaways
It is an online course so you will basically go through pre-recorded videos. The course is well structured and Ivan manages to explain everything very simply. The course explores many areas from basic to more complex items : Ivan will take you through relatively easy topics such as Bitcoin, cryptocurrency wallets and ICOs (Initial Coin Offering) to more complex ones such as the Byzantine Fault Tolerance problem (I know it sounds like a Big Bang Theory episode), Hashrates and Segwit for example. If you follow the crypto news this terms are coming back regularly so it is good for me to get a better understand of it.
I now correctly understand what a 51% attack is, I know the difference between a hard and a soft fork, etc. You get access to a Facebook group where you can interact with the other students and ask your questions directly to Ivan as well. It is a good way to reinforce your knowledge and discuss your ideas and suggestions.
It remains a complex subject in my opinion but as long as you are truly interested and curious it will remain an enjoyable class and you clearly do not need to be a programmer. It took me a little more over one month to complete the course and all of the assignments, but if you put more efforts into it you can probably complete it in under 2 or 3 weeks.
What I learned and that might be of interest to you :
As a non tech guy : Do not let the tech lingo scare you, it is not that complicated to understand.
I have learned more about many specific terms surrounding the cryptocurrency space and it will definitely help me to understand the news better.
An interesting observation in the course is that when thinking of the internet the money is made in the apps (such as Google, Facebook, Youtube,...) not in the internet protocol itself. With Blockchain as per today the money is made by investing in the protocol such as Bitcoin or Ethereum but not necessarily the applications built on top of it.
There is a whole chapter on industrial use cases where certain industries could benefit from the technology. We often hear "the middleman" will become useless but we forget on the other hand that new types of jobs could appear. The covered industries are :
- Finance : Having inflation programmed in the code will prevent hyperinflation, making transactions more efficient,...
- Health Care : Think of patient history that could be easily transferred to another doctor or hospital
- Insurance : Automated claims
- Supply Chain : Traceability of goods, Quality of the products cooperation between supplier and customers
- Law : A new job could be "crypto lawyer" in order to program/ensure compliant smart Contracts for example.
If you are going to invest be sure not to skip the Github chapter, you will learn to find precious information on the source code of the coins/project you consider putting your money in. Github is the name for the online cooperation platform for various open source Blockchain projects. There is an example in the course with Chaincoin which was a total scam in the summer of 2017, if you had checked the source code for 2 minutes you would have found out immediately.
All in all, I am very impressed by the quality of the course, my hats off to Ivan and his team. I am absolutely amazed by the energy and the quality that is put in the course. For the perfectionists it is true that you will find some typos here and there in the slides but it is their first course, they are not native english speakers and let us keep in mind that the team has an average age of around 21 year old! The course absolutely deserves my 5 stars!
Have I met my goals and should you purchase it too?
- Career : I absolutely feel more confident now that I went through the course that I am ready for changes in my professional environment. If a company I work for decides on moving some projects on to the Blockchain platform, I will definitely be able to discuss fairly easily with both the IT team and the managers.
- Cryptocurrencies : If I decide to increase some of my positions into some cryptocurrency projects I will be better equipped technically than before.
- Social project : This is a long-term one but I see possibilities, I just need to define and get started on my plan here.
My goals with the course are thus achieved! But could this apply to you too? I had clear goals before entering the course so this defined my level of satisfaction and the value I got from it. So you will need to see for yourself.
If you are looking at understanding basics of Bitcoin and the Blockchain in less than 2 days there is already a ton of free information on Ivan´s channel and other reliable sources on the internet. You will need some basics if you are looking at speculating/investing in Bitcoin but a full-fledged course might not be needed (still a nice to have though).
However, if you are truly committed to understand more about Bitcoin, Ethereum and the Blockchain technology, the course is an absolute must. The course is aimed at developers, entrepreneurs and investors. In one month, you will gain invaluable knowledge on the subject fairly quickly instead of looking everywhere on the internet, your network etc. In my case there is also a psychological factor that since I paid for it, I feel more committed to learn more seriously and put efforts in viewing a lessons several times if necessary or asking questions in the Facebook forum. I feel confident I will get significant return on my investment.
Am I "shilling" the course? Definitely, but I would not promote anything I do not believe in or that will not add value to you. This high quality course is priced at 189 USD, offers excellent value and you can enroll here.
So once again thanks to Ivan (@ivanli) and the team for this great course and keep on "10x"ing!
Disclosure: I am the author of the same article on www.joneytalks.com This is my own independent review of the course and the article did not get sponsored. The post never the less may contain affiliate links. That means I may make a small commission (at no cost to you) if you make a purchase. This will help to support Joney Talks!