Remix is an open-source web and desktop application for smart contract development. It has modules for testing, debugging, and deploying your Solidity contracts to the blockchain.

One of the reasons I personally love Remix is its ease of use — especially for beginners. You don't have to download or install anything. Just go to remix.ethereum.org, and you can start coding smart contracts straight from your browser.

Solidity is an object-oriented programming language for writing smart contracts and, at the time of writing, by far the most popular one in the ecosystem.

It is used for implementing smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, most notably, Ethereum.

I'll be writing a lot more about Solidity in the future. For now, check out their website and documentation to get started.

Marc Garreau wrote an excellent two-part tutorial on how to get started with the Web3.py library:

​A Developer's Guide to Ethereum​

If this is the first time you hear about it: Web3.py is a package that significantly simplifies the way you can connect to and interact with an Ethereum node using Python.

The tutorial will teach you how to interact with a simulated Ethereum node, i.e., read block data, check account balances, and send transactions — all using Python.

If you're already using Python or want a good reason to learn it, this tutorial is for you.

Did you check out How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document in one of the previous issues? Great!

Then you're ready to proceed with the next read that's required for any blockchain developer: the Bitcoin white paper.