Web3 is a bit of an ethereal idea (that’s only partially a pun on Ethereum). Some have even suggested that it serves as more of a buzzword or marketing term. Especially considering that Web3, as a term, is being proactively termed rather than retroactively coined (i.e. people are calling it the future now rather than naming it after it happened), it’s questionable whether it is really the future of anything.
That being said, if you want to focus on the central elements of Web3, which include decentralization, blockchains, smart contracts, and token-based economies, I would suggest focusing on learning those concepts and then progressing to the languages which support the apps they’re used in. Such languages include, but are not limited to:
- All front-end technologies (e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, etc.). People still need to see what they’re interacting with.
- Solidity is a big one for the Ethereum blockchain.
- Any frameworks/libraries which provide APIs for the interaction between front-end technologies and back-end/blockchain technologies.
I will further caution that, in truth, the core concepts of so-called Web3 technologies exist more solidly in the research realm than in reality, regardless of the half-baked implementations you may have seen or heard of. The core of the Web3 world is extremely complex. Much of it hinges on the fundamental questions: how does one build trust between two or more parties while maintaining anonymity, and how can a system involving interaction between various actors maintain accurate records whilst involving no central store of said records? If these questions seem difficult to answer, it’s because they are. If they don’t, it’s because you haven’t thought about them long enough.
Yet, if the above does not dissuade you, if it makes you even more passionate about pursuing these ideas, then go for it!
General estimations of time to get into this space would be between 6 months and a year depending on what you want to do and how much time you have each day.
Resources include Codecademy’s own front-end paths/courses and, for Solidity, the community and YouTube videos that have been built to support it.
Edited to add that Codecademy also has introductory courses on crypto and blockchain technologies: https://www.codecademy.com/search?query=blockchain