Jumping into Blockchain for Project Managers
I have been speaking with many project managers through my Stevens network, meetup's, Linkedin and at Banks and one common theme is emerging: how do I learn more about Blockchain? Or even the dreaded question: what IS Blockchain?!
I've spent the last few months learning a tremendous amount about Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum and how the underlying technoloies actually work. I've setup my own private Blockchain instances (Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum) running on AWS and mined my own private Ether (while attempting to setup my own tokens on Hyperledger Frabic). It was a great experience to get hands on with the technology and use tools I would never touch in my day job, such as Docker, Geth and other infrastructure tools. Seeing as I have a technical background in development and server setups, it was easy for me to jump in, but many of my Project and Program Manager brothers and sisters do not have this kind of background so this post is for you. If you're interested in learning more about Blockchain, I've put together a full roadmap of all the resources and tools you may want to explore to learn about this amazing emerging technology and how to start thinking about use cases for it. The key things to remember is that this is a very new technology that is still developing and morphing, and as a project manager the key is not only understanding Blockchain but how to implement it. What are the key things that go into a Blockchain implementation. I'll be exploring more of that in a future post but will try to touch on that here as well.
The Blockchain Resource List for Project Managers
Probably the definitive source of everything Blockchain that is happening in 2018. It takes you through what the history of money is, what makes Bitcoin have value and how it works gently! You need to actively read this book and I would suggest follow-up work to explore what all the startups are doing. This book will take you from 0 to hero very quickly.
2. The product managers guide to Blockchain (5 parts)
Will explain some details of the Blockchain, take you through various differences between a few implementations and show you some use cases. Very important read. Look up terms you don't understand from here.
3. The quiet masters of cryptocurrency - Nick Szabo (PODCAST 70 mins or so non-technical)
One of the key minds of cryptocurrency explains what a lot of stuff is easily. This is a very important conversation that not only covers the basics, but gives you insight to how people in the crypto industry think.
4. a16z Podcast: Why Crypto Tokens Matter.
A very good conversation with the venture capital side. By now you'll be catching on to the terms and terminology and at least at a high-level things will be coming together enough you'll be able to see order of magnitude impacts of using the technology
5. a16z Podcast: Ethereum, App Coins and Beyond.
A conversation with the person who made Ethereum. Listen to what this prodigy has to say.
6. Future Thinkers Podcast, FTP033, Blockchain - The building blocks for a new society.
There is this whole Utopian movement going on right now with Blockchain and listening to this, will help you understand how people are imagining potential futuristic use cases for Blockchain
7. Bitcoin the Internet of Money
Long post and old but good (from wired magazine)
Now you are ready to dive into the real source of Blockchain information. Explains the insides of Blockchain and Bitcoin. When you're done with this, you're ready for a project in Blockchain
9. Follow people who know so much more then all of us on Twitter
Forking implementations of Blockchain is a big deal and this person who wrote the Wiley textbook on Blockchain breaks down what this means and how it can impact a project. This is especially important because most implementations end up being forks of the original Blockchain content. Important to know
I will put up a second list of more materials soon. Until then, if you have questions or suggestions, please feel free to reach out.
A dedicated Edupreneur who is committed to bring world-class education resources to Chinese families.
6 年Thanks for sharing, David. I've been learning blockchain from a non-tech perspective. This is very helpful.
Global Cloud Alliances @ Bloomberg | xAWS
6 年Thanks for sharing, David!