On Thursday, the Linux Foundation announced yet another resource to help leaners grow more familiar with blockchain technology. The new LFD271 – Hyperledger Fabric Fundamentals is currently open for enrollment. The course is intended to onboard learners into the world of the blockchain and introduce people to current uses and practices.

Later this year, successful students will be able to take the Certified Hyperledger Fabric Administrator and Certified Hyperledger Sawtooth Administrator exams to prove their merit.

The New Course from the Linux Foundation

The course comes on the back of two others from the Linux Foundation looking to spread knowledge about the decentralized world. Blockchain for Business, a professional certificate program, was launched in collaboration with edX earlier this year along with the free introductory program Blockchain: Understanding Its Uses and Implications.

“Blockchain technology adoption is increasing at a rapid pace – with TechCrunch reporting blockchain jobs as the second-fastest growing in today’s labor market – leading to a shortage of professionals who are qualified to implement and manage it on an enterprise scale,” said Linux Foundation General Manager, Training & Certification Clyde Seepersad, in a statement. “After seeing more than 100,000 students take our free introductory Hyperledger course, we knew it was time for more advanced training options, and certification exams to demonstrate the extent of professionals’ knowledge.”

Hyperledger Fabric was developed by the Linux Foundation as a framework to develop and implement blockchain technology. As described on the site, “Intended as a foundation for developing applications or solutions with a modular architecture, Hyperledger Fabric allows components, such as consensus and membership services, to be plug-and-play. Hyperledger Fabric leverages container technology to host smart contracts called “chaincode” that comprise the application logic of the system. Hyperledger Fabric was initially contributed by Digital Asset and IBM, as a result of the first hackathon.”

LFD271 runs just two days and is intended as a professional course. It jumps off from introductory work on the fundamentals of blockchain, hyperledger, and decentralized technologies and goes over some of the core architecture and components used for dApp development.

It introduces learners to Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Fabric SDK, and Hyperledger Fabric Certificate Authority. The course is comprised of self-paced reading material that gives way to lab exercises intended to show students the various processes involved in creating a dApp.

Jonathan Levi, an accomplished computer scientists, cryptographer, and founder of HACERA, teaches the course. Levi was one of the early contributors to the framework and played an instrumental role in its Membership Services (the permissioning layer of the framework). He also worked with Professor Dan Boneh to build the first Ethereum class at Stanford University.

Hyperledger and Sawtooth Certifications

Upon completion of the course, two professional certifications will be made available later this year. The Certified Hyperledger Fabric Administrator Exam will ensure that learners have all the requisite skill to develop and deploy an HF network for commercial use. Learners will be tested on:

• Application Lifecycle Management
• Installing and Configuring the Network
• Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
• Membership Service Provision
• Network Maintenance and Operations

The same goes for the Certified Hyperledger Sawtooth Administrator, but regarding a Sawtooth network instead. Areas of testing will include:

• Installation
• Configuration
• Permissioning, Identity Management & Security
• Lifecycle
• Troubleshooting

The new course LFD271 is by no means a prerequisite for taking these exams, although it does promise to prepare learners for it.

Interested developers should keep a lookout for a beta tester program offered by the Linux Foundation in the run up to the exam release. As stated on their blog post, “If someone completes the beta exam with a passing grade, they will become one of the first Certified Hyperledger Fabric or Sawtooth Administrators upon launch of the program.”

Featured Image: Jason Leung, Unsplash.