From 0 to a blockchain developer career?

Looking for input from developers on this. I’m 44 years old. When I was 18-19, I started community college with a major in computer science as I wanted to be a programmer. Had a few programming classes in assembly, and C++ and I did ok. Then I had this one class that was called “data structures” and I remember it being so difficult and over my head that I dropped it, and computer science major along with it.

Instead I got a bachelors degree in business and information systems. But after college, instead of pursuing life in the corporate world, I threw my hat in the ring and went into the e-commerce business with my family for the past 20 years. The industry I’m in is changing quite a bit and I just don’t see a future in it for much longer so I’m looking into some other career change options.

I’ve kept an eye on crypto as I got into bitcoin early on (and sold early on like a lot of other people!) so when I learned about ICP last year, I became very interested in it from an investment standpoint, along with its vision. Bottom line is I wonder if it’s worthwhile for me, at my age, to take another look at trying to learn software development, this time with a focus on block chain and securing employment in this field. Based on research, I understand that there is a demand for blockchain developers. But then I have this nagging voice in my head telling me that I sucked at it when I was younger, and it won’t be any easier to learn now, that it just wasn’t for me.

So I’m just curious to hear anyone who works in this field, their advice, their experience. Is it something I could realistically pursue? I would effectively be starting from nothing at this point other than my experience in e-commerce. Thanks so much!

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In my opinion, it’s the golden age of programming just because AI can teach you and make you 10X more productive. My advice, get Cursor/DeepSeek and build something from scratch with natural language to see if it’s for you. Don’t ‘learn’ from a course/bootcamp, just do it.

Now the down side from someone who hires devs from cheap countries. Because anyone can do it, and small project funding dries up pretty quick in this ecosystem, it’s not the place to get an easy/stable job. The only reason to move forward would be to build something for a genuine purpose, or if someone you know would hire you for initiative/soft-skills and be patient with your inexperience.

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I’m not sure I follow what you mean by build something from scratch with natural language? How does that help me learn if it’s the AI that’s writing the code?

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Well it’s will teach you programming logic/design, but not syntax or language-specific patterns/principals.

It’s like, if I was entering ecommerce at 44 would you tell me to first master in-person sales to understand the customer before going online? Probably not. You could do it the Mr. Miyagi way ‘wax on, wax off’/‘paint the fence’ or whatever but unless you’re not a 14yr old budding savant, it’s probably a negative payback to try and learn the whole stack. But different philosophies I guess.