Learn how to build on Ethereum; the superpowers and the gotchas.
SpeedRunEthereum is a hands-on series of challenges designed to help you learn by building. Each challenge delivers one key "aha" moment, a mental unlock about how Ethereum really works. At the same time, you'll be building your Ethereum portfolio.
Already comfortable building on Ethereum?
Jump straight to Challenge #0Why build on Ethereum?
Ethereum is a global network where you can deploy apps that run forever, can't be shut down, and give ownership to their creators.
It works like this:
- 🤖 You write logic in smart contracts and deploy them to the blockchain (decentralized, immutable, available to anyone forever!)
- ✏️ You build a frontend to interact with your smart contracts
- 👥 Anyone in the world can use them or build on top: no gatekeepers, no approval needed.
It's not just about digital assets; Ethereum lets you build systems where money itself is programmable.
From payments and rewards to auctions and governance, logic becomes value.
How does SpeedRunEthereum work?
You'll be able to tinker with smart contracts, deploy locally, test interactions, and build usable decentralized apps from day one.
Along the way, you can submit completed challenges to your SpeedRunEthereum portfolio. Each challenge becomes a public proof of your learning.
You'll use Scaffold-ETH 2, a powerful developer toolkit that gives you:
- ⚙️ A full Ethereum dev environment with local blockchain
- 🔌 A frontend connected to your contracts
- 🔍 Built-in Debug tools, Faucets, wallet connection, and powerful hooks and components.
Don't worry if you don't understand everything up front. Each step is designed to make things click as you go. Just keep going. It'll all start to make sense.
Challenges Overview
🎫 Create a simple NFT to learn basics of 🏗 scaffold-eth.
🦸 A superpower of Ethereum is allowing you, the builder, to create a simple set of rules that an adversarial group of players can use to work together.
🤖 Smart contracts are kind of like "always on" vending machines that anyone can access.
🎰 Randomness is tricky on a public deterministic blockchain.
💵 Build an exchange that swaps ETH to tokens and tokens to ETH.
💳 Build your own lending and borrowing platform.
🔮 Build a prediction market where users can create questions about future outcomes for others to bet on.
🚀 Ethereum L2s make blockchain apps fast and cheap, bringing us closer to mainstream adoption! Most L2s are EVM compatible, meaning your app should work seamlessly across them with little to no changes—just deploy and go! In this challenge, you will deploy an app across multiple chains, including Optimism, Base, and Arbitrum, and experience the snappy, low-cost transactions while exploring how they make building scalable apps and games easier than ever.
🪙 Build your own decentralized stablecoin.
👩👩👧👧 Using a smart contract as a wallet we can secure assets by requiring multiple accounts to "vote" on transactions.
🎨 Create a dynamic SVG NFT using a smart contract.
Ready?
Start learning today!
Connect your wallet and register to start building your Ethereum developer portfolio.