SIMBA Chain (SIMBA) claims it has an ‘answer’ for COVID-19 lockdown lassitude: a training website for those who want to learn how to build and deploy decentralised applications (dApps). This is free/freemium offering.
Joel Neidig, CEO and co-founder of SIMBA Chain, made the decision to offer complimentary blockchain training on the freemium low-code platform to help people up-skill while they have to work from home or are furloughed. “America’s economy has been broadsided by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a quarter of our workforce sitting on the sidelines wondering what their next move should be. It’s not just service industry workers who are without work; freelance developers and consultants have also been displaced “Once we get through this temporary economic lockdown, the demand for skills in technology like blockchain will be greater than before. So we’re making training available to all.
“As the world comes out of the global pandemic, blockchain technology will be one of the cornerstones of the continuing digital transformation, creating new categories of knowledge workers and empowered analyst consultants. We encourage everyone, regardless of current skillset, industry or age, to take advantage of our free training.”
The impact and opportunity represented by COVID-19
Weeks into the various forms (depending where you are) of COVID-19 lockdown and two aspects become ever clearer:
- the novelty of working in one’s pyjamas, Zoom meetings and with kids constantly underfoot has lost its glamour (if there was any)
- bingeing on Amazon Prime, Hulu or Netflix and on comfort foods is not sustainable.
By using Simba’s freemium low-code blockchain platform, those with an interest in dApps, underpinned by smart contracts, can:
- discover how dApps could be the backbone of blockchain solutions
- explore how it is possible to solve a growing array of business and government needs where information immutability, track-ability and accessibility are critical.
SIMBA’s three offerings
SIMBA Chain is initially offering three micro-learning sessions. These are suitable for users of any skill level on demand via the company’s training portal. They include:
- building your first smart dApp (available now)
- dApps made simple (available soon)
- Ethereum smart contracts (also available soon).
SIMBA Chain Blockchain Master Trainer Tommy Cooksey designed or is designing – and will teach – these micro-learning sessions. The online sessions will combine video and text – with self-pacing online learners seeing each session lasting from 30-45 minutes.
Once completed, learners will possess a solid understanding of, and the ability to develop and launch, blockchain dApps using SIMBA Chain’s Smart Contract as a Service platform (SCaaS). In addition they will acquire an understanding of higher-order functionality concepts such as:
- off chaining
- data stores
- deploying a RESTful-based API.
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
SIMBA Chain derives from a grant awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to the University of Notre Dame Center for Research Computing and ITAMCO to develop a secure, unhackable messaging and transaction platform for the U.S. military. The objective of SIMBA’s cloud-based, smart contract-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform is to enable users (and developers, governments and enterprises) to develop and deploy blockchain dApps for:
- iOS
- Android
- the web.
The SCaaS platform supports Ethereum, Quorum, RSK and Stellar. Simba says it will:
- add more blockchain protocols to its cutting-edge platform
- offer more advanced training, depending on demand
From an Enterprise Times perspective the challenge is overcoming that lassitude. In lockdown it is hard to self-motivate. Doing so for a subject as esoteric as blockchain may well prove to be SIMBA’s greatest challenge.
