My 5-Year Journey with the Hyperledger Community

As a technology enthusiast, I have always been fascinated by the latest developments in this field and eager to participate in the community. I got introduced to Hyperledger technologies during my undergrad. Over the last five years, I have had the opportunity to engage with the Hyperledger community in various ways, from attending conferences to being the speaker, using open source projects to contributing back to those open-source projects. In this blog, I want to share my five-year journey with the Hyperledger community, the challenges I have faced, and the lessons I have learned.

Year 1 - Exploring the Tech Landscape:

My journey started in 2018 when I decided to attend my first virtual meetup session. The session was a game changer for me as it opened my eyes to the vast world of blockchain technology. I met a few people from different backgrounds, each with a unique story to tell. It was fascinating to see how blockchain had impacted lives and how they were using it to solve real-world problems. That meetup inspired and motivated me to learn more.

Year 2 - Getting Involved in Open Source:

In my second year, I became more involved in the Hyperledger community by contributing to open source projects. I started with baby steps by answering questions on stack overflow and writing blog posts. Open source allowed me to learn from experienced developers and contribute to real-world projects. It was challenging at first as I had to learn new programming languages and tools. However, the community was supportive, and I was able to make contributions that were valuable to the project.

Year 3 - Mentoring and Coaching:

As I gained more experience, I realized the importance of giving back to the community. In my third year, I started mentoring and coaching junior developers. It was a gratifying experience to see them grow and succeed. Mentoring also helped me reinforce my knowledge and learn new perspectives from the people I was mentoring. This year I also started creating blockchain courses to help others learn more about the technologies in a streamlined manner. People liked them very much and they became bestseller courses in the category.

 Year 4 - Speaking at Conferences:

In my fourth year, I decided to challenge myself further by speaking at meetups and conferences. It was a nerve-wracking experience, but I learned a lot from the process. Preparing for the talk helped me consolidate my knowledge on the topic, and presenting in front of a live audience taught me valuable public speaking skills. The feedback from the audience was positive, and it encouraged me to continue speaking at tech events. I also started a YouTube Channel, where I started posting videos related to blockchain and cloud-native technologies. During this period, I also applied for the Hyperledger mentorship program as mentee and got selected for Hyperledger - Deploy Carbon Accounting Network with Bevel. That project helped me learn  more about technologies like Ansible, GitOps, Kubernetes, etc.

Year 5 - Building a Community:

In my fifth year, I wanted to help make the Hyperledger India Chapter closer and more reachable to people. I serve as a Developer Advocate Lead at Hyperledger India Chapter promoting the adoption and education of blockchain technology. I started engaging in meetups, inviting speakers, leading open source projects, and building a stronger community around blockchain tech. It was challenging at first, but with persistence, dedication and support from the community members, the community grew stronger. It was amazing to see people come together to share their knowledge and experiences. This year I proposed two Hyperledger Mentorship projects, Hyperledger - Improvement in HLF-Connector, Hardening the production readiness and Hyperledger - Enhance Blockchain Explorer to accommodate new features for Hyperledger Fabric.

Conclusion:

The last five years have been an incredible journey with the Hyperledger community. I have learned so much from attending conferences, contributing to open source, speaking at events, mentoring, and building a community. The challenges I faced along the way have helped me grow both professionally and personally. I am excited to see what the future holds and to continue contributing to the Hyperledger ecosystem.

My current contributions include serving as a maintainer for Hyperledger Bevel and the following labs:

1. bevel-operator-fabric (now part of Hyperledger Bevel)
2. blockchain-explorer
3. hlf-connector

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Until next time, keep learning and exploring new ideas.