Become an Ethernaut and help build the next generation of Ethereum developers.

Welcome to the Ether, Ethernaut.

The Ethereum ecosystem continues to grow at a staggering pace. Layer 2 solutions are finally here, the Eth2 merge is well under way, and DeFi adoption continues to rise. Things are stirring up for sure! To keep up with the pace, protocols need to scale engineering capacities. In spite of the phenomenal growth, there aren’t enough qualified developers in the ecosystem for everything we need to build in the short to mid term. The issue at hand is that while there are millions of exceptionally skilled and experienced senior developers out there, senior Solidity developers remain scarce.

The Ethernauts, developers already exploring the ether, seek out to solve this imbalance and flip the supply deficiency by combining their forces and knowledge. With the right incentives, we can rapidly transform senior developers into senior Solidity developers.

Therefore, we are thrilled to share with you the news of the creation of the EthernautDAO.

The Ethernaut solution

Fortunately, the first Ethernauts are starting to come together to train new Ethereum engineers! To jump-start the population of future Ethernauts, we can begin with just the Ethereum part. With the right mentoring, a senior developer can become a senior Solidity developer in a very short period of time.

A senior developer in any tech stack is a master of the art of divide-and-conquer problem solving. In fact, this is one of the pillars that gives the seniority title. For a senior developer, learning a new language, or even a new tech stack like Ethereum is just another problem that can be crushed systematically. With a skilled mentor — a fellow Ethernaut — at hand, this can be accomplished in no time.

The genesis group of Ethernauts consists of meticulously picked, highly skilled and experienced Solidity developers and educators chosen by the founding protocols of the DAO. Mentors in turn propose their trainees, while the EthernautDAO will provide incentives to jump-start a rapid two-month mentoring program.

Throughout the program, trainees can already be productive by helping out with the outer layers of a particular project, which do not strictly require Ethereum knowledge per se. Things like front end engineering, unit testing, continuous integration, scripting, and much more; in our experience, we’ve found that backlog trimming is a particularly effective training ground for Ethernauts-to-be.

Our initial calculations show that if training takes 2 months, we could turn the entire population of senior developers worldwide into Ethernauts in less than four years. Or maybe not. 😆

At the end of the transformation process, new Ethernauts will arise who in return one day will be able to mentor new trainees. The more Ethernauts we create, the faster we can scale our efforts building the future of Ethereum.

Shaping the future of Ethereum

This two-month mentoring program is just the beginning. As the EthernautDAO aligns incentives, it will act as a valuable resource for trainees, mentors, and protocols looking for Solidity developers. The DAO will be able to define standards with regard to educational material and instructional content, skill assessment, and hiring conditions. For example, the DAO will guarantee a minimum wage, fair equity emission, 100% remote compatibility, and more.

Besides mentoring senior developers, the EthernautDAO will also enable
non-seniors to participate in open activities, such as workshops, AMAs or hackathons. The first Discord AMA is already planned for Wednesday, July 14th 21:00 UTC. Don’t miss this opportunity to get involved with the EthernautDAO!

With time, we can expect the DAO to produce its own curriculum to educate future Ethereum developers and be a well known go-to place for general education. This way, also junior or semi-senior developers will be able to benefit from the DAO and one day have a trajectory at hand to become successful Ethernauts, adding to the ever growing pool of qualified Ethereum builders.

And this is just the beginning. How the EthernautDAO evolves in order to define new standards and enable growth depends on all of us! We hereby invite the whole Ethereum community to join us and create something beautiful for all to benefit.

Ethernauts, Unite!

The EthernautDAO is open for everyone willing to contribute by sharing their knowledge and know-how, or to simply broaden their horizons and learn together with the best!

We also invite all Ethereum native protocols to stop fighting this battle solo, and instead collaborate to solve this problem at a community level.

The DAO at this moment consists of a council of mentors, representatives of the first participating protocols, as well as the coordination and educational staff. If you’re a senior Solidity developer or representative of a protocol, reach out to us and join the effort!

For information sharing and community discussions, join our Discord server, present yourself and join the discussions!