Build A Blockchain & Cryptocurrency | Full-Stack Edition

Full-stack blockchain+cryptocurrency course! A backend + frontend with Node.js, Express, React, & more!

What you’ll learn
Build a complete blockchain-powered cryptocurrency from scratch.
Understand and fluently converse on the core software engineering concepts behind blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Create unique blockchain-centric solutions to real work problems and business applications.
Build proof-of-work based systems.
Create backend Node JS servers, with an express API and full testing suite.
Build server-to-server systems with real-time networking capabilities.
Build frontend web applications, particularly with React JS.
Deploy full-stack projects for wide use by the public.
Employ software best practices and coding conventions to write clean, scalable code.

Requirements
Experience with the command line and the essentials of an operating system.
Knowledge in at least one programming language.
Familiarity with how web development works.

Description
Code the Future: Build a Full Blockchain and Cryptocurrency From Scratch

This course isn’t just about learning what blockchain is – it’s about building one.

You’ll code a complete, production-style blockchain and cryptocurrency system: a Node backend, a React JS frontend, and a real deployment pipeline – all guided by professional engineering principles.

Whether you’re an individual developer or part of a company designing a technical learning curriculum, this course offers a proven, hands-on way to teach blockchain fundamentals through real full-stack software development.

Why This Course

The blockchain industry has matured – but developer education often hasn’t. Too many tutorials stop at the “theory” stage. This course goes far beyond that.

You’ll build every layer yourself

A blockchain with mining, validation, and proof of work.

A cryptocurrency with wallets, signatures, and transaction pools.

A distributed API network using Pub/Sub.

A React JS application that interacts with your blockchain in real time.

A full deployment to a live environment.

And you’ll do all of this with clean code, TDD, and professional full-stack structure – the same standards I use in my own work as a software engineer.

What Students Are Saying

“Highly recommendable course for blockchain beginners. You can experience every aspect of blockchain mechanism with hands-on coding projects.”

“As a fellow instructor, this course has given me something to live up to. Just incredible. HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND.”

“I am a beginner in programming. But I found David to be a prolific teacher. I cannot believe he is releasing this quality material for such an affordable price. Dude thank you so much! You are the best teacher I’ve ever had!”

“The instructor has put a lot of effort to explain every operation in very detail. This course is very helpful for me to understand how React works in web browser. Thank you.”

“Perfect! This course is a must-have for a junior developer.”

Who This Course Is For

Engineering teams and training programs looking to teach blockchain principles through practical, modern JavaScript development.

Developers who want to move beyond tutorials and build a complete, functioning blockchain system.

Intermediate programmers familiar with at least one language who want to learn Node JS, Express, and React in a serious project context.

Software engineers exploring distributed systems and full-stack architecture.

Curious learners who want to deeply understand how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin actually work-by coding one from scratch.

Why Teams Choose This Course

Engineering teams and corporate training programs choose this course because it delivers a comprehensive, project-based learning experience. It delivers a balance of theory, code, and software best practices. It delivers a final deployed product that can be reviewed and demonstrated. And it delivers a repeatable learning path that works for both solo developers and teams.

It’s a single resource that unites backend, frontend, and blockchain principles into one cohesive curriculum.

A Real Learning Journey

Every section is designed to combine deep conceptual understanding with hands-on application

The Blockchain Backend – build blocks, hashing, and validation.

Proof of Work & Mining – implement difficulty control and understand the 51% attack.

Networking – connect peers, sync chains, and handle live updates with Pub/Sub.

Cryptocurrency Features – wallets, signatures, balances, and mining rewards.

Frontend Blockchain – a React-based explorer and dashboard.

Frontend Cryptocurrency – conduct transactions and mine them from your browser.

Deploy to Production – share your project with the world, fully live.

Professional Software Standards

As a practicing full-stack developer, I’ve brought the same level of care to this project that I do to the code I ship every day. You’ll follow modern engineering practices

Test-driven development (TDD) with Jest.

Clean code and folder structure used in production Node JS systems.

Express API design for RESTful services.

Reusable React components built with clarity and purpose.

Deployment best practices used by professional engineers.

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, you’ll have your own blockchain and cryptocurrency live online. You’ll understand blockchain theory and engineering fundamentals. You’ll be able to explain distributed ledgers, proof of work, and cryptography. You’ll write full-stack JavaScript confidently with Node and React. And you will build and deploy complex web applications with professional discipline.

What You’ll Build and Learn

You’ll start with the backend, building a blockchain step by step

Design and code blocks, chains, and hash functions.

Implement proof of work and difficulty adjustment.

Add consensus, chain validation, and network synchronization.

Extend the system into a cryptocurrency with real wallet addresses and transactions.

Use Pub/Sub to power a peer-to-peer blockchain network].

Then, you’ll move to the frontend, where you’ll

Build a React JS application and frontend to visualize the blockchain, transactions, and balances.

Create a user-friendly wallet dashboard.

Mine transactions and interact with your network in real time.

Finally, you’ll deploy your blockchain so anyone in the world can access and use it.

Why Learn From Me

I’m a full-stack software engineer, and I’ve released more than 17 courses on software development, taken by over 320,000 students worldwide. My mission is to help developers learn modern technology in a structured, motivating, and professional way.

In this course, I’ve brought together my background in software engineering and education to give you the kind of hands-on, conceptual, and complete learning experience that’s rare in online training.

Your Blockchain Journey Starts Here

By the end of this course, you won’t just understand blockchain – you’ll have built one. You’ll have a deployed cryptocurrency system that demonstrates the concepts powering real-world decentralized technologies.

If you’re curating content for your engineering team or investing in your own technical growth, this is a flagship full-stack course built for lasting impact.

Join today, and start building the technology behind tomorrow’s software!
Who this course is for

This course is suited for someone who has experience in at least one programming language. This course moves through coding essentials at a quick pace. Your experience in one other language will definitely help.
Perfect for anyone who already knows a bit of JavaScript. This course is 95% JavaScript based, so any JS experience will be extremely useful.
This course is not suited for complete beginners to programming. You will find that the course moves too quickly if you’ve never coded before. However, a persistent student may be able to learn coding in this course, if that student is willing to be patient with a lot of supplemental reading and research.

Overview
Section 1: Introduction and Getting Started

Lecture 1 Why this course? (Course Promo)

Lecture 2 The Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies – What, Why, and How

Lecture 3 Code the Blockchain in 10 minutes | Lightning Version

Lecture 4[Required] Course Repository, Software Installation, Tips and Tricks

Lecture 5[Optional] Mega JavaScript and Node.js Overview

Section 2: Blocks | The Blockchain Backend

Lecture 6 Section Overview: Blocks | The Blockchain Backend

Lecture 7 Commits for this Section

Lecture 8 Set Up the Blockchain Application

Lecture 9 Create the Block Class

Lecture 10 Create the Block Class | TDD Style

Lecture 11 The Genesis Block | Tests

Lecture 12 The Genesis Block | Code

Lecture 13 Mine Blocks

Lecture 14 Crypto Hash and SHA-256

Lecture 15 Hash in MineBlock

Lecture 16 Recap: Blocks | The Blockchain Backend

Section 3: The Chain | the Blockchain Backend

Lecture 17 Section Overview: The Chain | the Blockchain Backend

Lecture 18 Commits for this Section

Lecture 19 The Blockchain Class

Lecture 20 Chain Validation and Replacement Overview | Free Preview

Lecture 21 Chain Validation | Tests

Lecture 22 Chain Validation | Code

Lecture 23 Chain Replacement

Lecture 24 Stub Console Output in Tests

Lecture 25 Recap: The Chain and Proof of Work | the Blockchain Backend

Section 4: Proof of Work | The Blockchain Backend

Lecture 26 Section Overview: Proof of Work | The Blockchain Backend

Lecture 27 Commits for this Section

Lecture 28 Proof of Work and the 51% Attack

Lecture 29 Difficulty and the Nonce Value | Tests

Lecture 30 Difficulty and the Nonce Value | Code

Lecture 31 Dynamic Difficulty and the Mine Rate

Lecture 32 Adjust the Difficulty in MineBlock

Lecture 33 Improve the Proof of Work System | Average Work Script

Lecture 34 Improve the Proof of Work System | Binary hashes

Lecture 35 Prevent Difficulty Jumps

Lecture 36 Recap: Proof of Work | the Blockchain Backend

Section 5: API and Network | The Blockchain Backend

Lecture 37 Section Overview: API and Network | The Blockchain Backend

Lecture 38 Commits for this Section

Lecture 39 Blockchain API and Network Overview

Lecture 40 Setup Express API

Lecture 41 Post Request to Mine a Block

Lecture 42 Real-Time Messaging Network through Pub/Sub | Overview

Lecture 43 Pub/Sub Options: Redis or PubNub

Lecture 44 Install Redis

Lecture 45 Redis Publisher/Subscriber Class

Lecture 46 Install PubNub

Lecture 47 PubNub: a Non-Redis Pub/Sub Alternative

Lecture 48 Broadcast Chain

Lecture 49 Start Peers and Broadcast Chain on API Mine

Lecture 50 Sync Chain on Connect

Lecture 51 Avoid Redundant Interactions

Lecture 52 Recap: API and Network | the Blockchain Backend

Section 6: Wallets, Keys, and Transactions | The Cryptocurrency Backend

Lecture 53 Section Overview: Wallets, Keys, and Transactions | The Cryptocurrency Backend

Lecture 54 Commits for this Section

Lecture 55 Wallets, Keys, and Transactions Overview

Lecture 56 Code Organization

Lecture 57 Create and Test Wallet Class

Lecture 58 Key Pair and Public Key Addresses

Lecture 59 Sign Data and Verifying Signatures

Lecture 60 Transaction Objects and the OutputMap | Tests

Lecture 61 Transaction Objects and the OutputMap | Code

Lecture 62 Transaction Inputs

Lecture 63 Cohesive Utility

Lecture 64 Validate Transaction

Lecture 65 Wallet Create Transaction

Lecture 66 Update Transactions with Multiple Outputs

Lecture 67 Improve the CryptoHash

Lecture 68 Transaction Update Edge Cases

Lecture 69 Recap: Wallets, Keys, and Transactions | The Cryptocurrency Backend

Section 7: Transaction Pool | The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Backend

Lecture 70 Section Overview: Transaction Pool | The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Backend

Lecture 71 Commits for This Section

Lecture 72 Transaction Pool Overview

Lecture 73 Create the Transaction Pool and Set Transactions

Lecture 74 API Transactions and Main Transaction Pool

Lecture 75 Handle Invalid Transactions

Lecture 76 Transaction Updates in the API

Lecture 77 Get Transaction Pool Map

Lecture 78 Broadcast Transaction

Lecture 79 Pubnub Set Transaction Edge Case

Lecture 80 Sync Transaction Pool Map on Connect

Lecture 81 Recap: Transaction Pool | the Blockchain Backend

Section 8: Mine Transactions | The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Backend

Lecture 82 Section Overview: Mine Transactions | The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Backend

Lecture 83 Commits for This Section

Lecture 84 Mine Transactions Overview

Lecture 85 Transaction Miner Class

Lecture 86 Grab Valid Transactions

Lecture 87 Reward Transaction

Lecture 88 Clear Blockchain Transactions

Lecture 89 Mine Transactions Endpoint

Lecture 90 Clear Recorded Transactions on Successful Replace

Lecture 91 Blockchain Balance Overview

Lecture 92 Calculate the Wallet Balance

Lecture 93 Calculate the Balance before each Transaction

Lecture 94 Wallet Balance From Recent Transaction

Lecture 95 Wallet-Info Request

Lecture 96 Validate Transaction Blocks Overview

Lecture 97 Valid Transaction Data | Tests

Lecture 98 Valid Transaction Data | Code

Lecture 99 Validate Input Balances

Lecture 100 Prevent Duplicate Transactions in Block

Lecture 101 Validate Transaction Chain

Lecture 102 Recap: Mine Transactions | The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Backend

Section 9: The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Backend | Review

Lecture 103 The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Backend | Review

Section 10: The Frontend Blockchain

Lecture 104 Section Overview: The Frontend Blockchain

Lecture 105 Commits for This Section

Lecture 106 The Frontend Blockchain Overview

Lecture 107 Optional: React.js Overview

Lecture 108 Serve a Frontend Page

Lecture 109 Add JavaScript to the Frontend

Lecture 110 Correct Version of parcel-bundler

Lecture 111 Build React into the Frontend

Lecture 112 Frontend Development Workflow

Lecture 113 App Component

Lecture 114 Fix to Upcoming Lecture: Fetch and Display Wallet-Info

Lecture 115 Fetch and Display Wallet-Info

Lecture 116 Visualize the Blocks

Lecture 117 Seed the Backend with Data

Lecture 118 Fonts link for upcoming lecture: Stylize the Application

Lecture 119 Stylize the Application

Lecture 120 Make a Block Component with Props

Lecture 121 Recap: The Frontend Blockchain

Section 11: The Frontend Cryptocurrency

Lecture 122 Section Overview: The Frontend Cryptocurrency

Lecture 123 Commits for This Section

Lecture 124 The Frontend Cryptocurrency Overview

Lecture 125 Toggle Transaction Displays

Lecture 126 Transaction Component

Lecture 127 React Router

Lecture 128 Conduct Transaction Component

Lecture 129 Post Transaction with Component

Lecture 130 Transaction Pool Component

Lecture 131 Poll the Transaction Pool

Lecture 132 Mine a Block of Transactions through the Frontend

Lecture 133 Recap: The Frontend Cryptocurrency

Section 12: Deploying to Production and Full-Stack Improvements

Lecture 134 Section Overview: Deploying to Production and Full-Stack Improvements

Lecture 135 Commits for This Section

Lecture 136 Ignore Redis, use PubNub

Lecture 137 Prepare for production and Publish to Heroku

Lecture 138 Start Production Peers

Lecture 139 Known Addresses | Backend

Lecture 140 Known Addresses | Frontend

Lecture 141 Blocks Pagination | Backend

Lecture 142 Blocks Pagination | Frontend

Lecture 143 Recap: Deploying to Production and Backend-Included Improvements

Section 13:[Optional reference section] Mega JavaScript Overview

Lecture 144 Optional: Mega JavaScript & Node.js Overview for JS Newcomers | Part 1

Lecture 145 Optional: Mega JavaScript & Node.js Overview for JS Newcomers | Part 2

Section 14:[Optional reference section] In-Depth JavaScript Overview

Lecture 146 Section Overview: Deploying to Production and Full-Stack Improvements

Lecture 147 The Console, Operators, and Variables

Lecture 148 Booleans and Conditionals

Lecture 149 Syntax – Semicolons and Comments

Lecture 150 Undefined and Primitives

Lecture 151 Arrays

Lecture 152 Objects

Lecture 153 Loops and Iteration

Lecture 154 Functions – Declarations vs. Expressions

Lecture 155 Arrow Functions

Lecture 156 Methods and the `this` Keyword

Lecture 157 More on `this` and Function Expressions vs. Arrow functions

Lecture 158 Interview Question | The `this` Keyword

Lecture 159 Callbacks

Lecture 160 Interview Question | Callbacks

Lecture 161 A Dynamic Language and Types

Lecture 162 Almost Everything is an Object

Lecture 163 Equality and Type Coercion

Lecture 164 Truthy and Falsy

Lecture 165 Null vs. Undefined

Lecture 166 Explicit Type Conversion

Lecture 167 Interview Question | JavaScript Types

Lecture 168 Let, Const, and Mutability

Lecture 169 Let, Const, Var, and Scope

Lecture 170 Var and Function Hoisting

Lecture 171 Interview Question | Scope and Hoisting

Lecture 172 Template Literals and Ternary Operators

Lecture 173 The Property Shorthand and Destructuring Assignment

Lecture 174 Object methods

Lecture 175 Spread Syntax

Lecture 176 Object.is, References, and Shallow Clone

Lecture 177 JSON.parse, JSON.stringify, and an Attempt at Deep Cloning

Lecture 178 Custom and Lodash CloneDeep

Lecture 179 Interview Question | Cloning an Object

Lecture 180 Closures

Lecture 181 Function Factories

Lecture 182 Higher Order Functions

Lecture 183 Interview Question | Closures, Higher-Order Functions, and Callbacks

Lecture 184 Object-Oriented Programming

Lecture 185 Constructor functions

Lecture 186 Classes

Lecture 187 Prototypes and the Prototype-Based Inheritance

Lecture 188 Object Prototype, .__proto__, and the prototype chain

Lecture 189 Interview Question | Prototype-Based Inheritance

Lecture 190 Asynchronous Code with SetTimeout

Lecture 191 Fetch and Promise

Lecture 192 Promise from Scratch

Lecture 193 JavaScript Engine and Runtime

Lecture 194 Await and Async

Lecture 195 Interview Question | Asynchronous JavaScript

Section 15: Conclusion

Lecture 196 Congratulations! And Final Remarks

Lecture 197 Challenges List | Article

Lecture 198 Bonus Lecture: More Content!