The most difficult thing about learning to program is…

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In April 2020, Chief Scientist of Matterpool Daniel Krawisz gave a presentation on ‘Getting Started with Programming’. He beings with an appropriate quote (timestamped link below):

“The most difficult thing about learning to program is believing that you can’t do it.”

I referenced this quote in my article last year on my experience developing Retrotwetch, the first alternative Twetch client. Krawisz also mentions how Bitcoin SV has a labor shortage and unfortunately after a year that is still the case. Given the token explosion in BSV in early 2021 and increased interest, personally I can attest to being frequently reached out to for help implementing ideas by those who do not know how to code.

While this is a bullish sign for those wanting to build on BSV, the reality is that we still have a huge gap between those who have ideas and those who can make them happen. The goal of this article is to advocate for a do-it-yourself approach in hopes to fill the labor gap and continue the innovative momentum in BSV.

I started a YouTube channel in early 2020 to teach how to build on BSV in JavaScript. To get started, I recommend my video on ‘Writing Hello World to the BSV Blockchain in under 4 minutes’:

Since last year I have gotten incredibly positive feedback on the channel and a goal of mine in 2021 is to continue producing tutorials more consistently.

I chose JavaScript to base the tutorials on not only because is it the most popular programming language in the world, but I believe it is the easiest to start with and a natural fit for Bitcoin development. With a couple of libraries and any web browser one can start interacting with the blockchain with ease.

I recommend the following resources to get started:

• The bsv library (legacy version 1.5.4, not bsv2)
• Money Button
• RUN

Each of these JS libraries have extensive documentation, are used heavily across the BSV ecosystem and are extremely powerful.

JavaScript has its criticisms and while they may be relevant to the technocrat, to the beginner programmer not so much. Most websites use JavaScript in some way, meaning despite these criticisms its utility is obvious. No one cares if JavaScript is loosely typed or was written in only 10 days if you can make money with it.

Additionally, certain qualifying terms like ‘full-stack,’ ‘frameworks,’ and ‘APIs’ may scare off potential new developers. I believe the use of these terms is intentional because the technical-minded want to limit competition. I advise to not be discouraged by these terms but to understand that you do not need knowledge of any of these things to get started.

Yes, one can earn Bitcoin today by building a single-page application with some basic HTML, CSS (optional) and JavaScript and/or uploading the web page to the blockchain.

Yes, it may be ugly, yes it may not have a domain name URL, but it will work. If one manages to pull this off the congratulations, they may have earned more money that a Full-Stack React developer did from making contributions to open-source repositories on GitHub.

If you believe you can develop, then you can develop. The technical details do not matter. Start building your dream idea on Bitcoin today.