Cardano CourseIntroduction

Hello Cardano

This course takes you from zero to building full-stack applications on Cardano. Through 10 hands-on lessons, you will write smart contracts with Aiken, build transactions with the Mesh SDK, and deploy working applications on the Cardano blockchain.

By the end of this course, you will have practical experience with wallets, transactions, smart contract development, testing, and Layer 2 scaling.

Prerequisites

  • TypeScript: Basic familiarity with TypeScript is expected. The course focuses on Cardano concepts, not language fundamentals.
  • Node.js v24+: Required for running lesson code. We recommend using nvm to manage your Node versions.
  • No blockchain experience required: Each lesson builds on the previous one, starting from the basics.

Course Outline

Lesson 1: Hello World

Set up the Mesh SDK, create a wallet with MeshWallet, and send your first lovelace transaction using MeshTxBuilder. Source code

Lesson 2: Multi-signature Transactions

Build multi-signature transactions to mint tokens using native scripts and set up a NextJS frontend to interact with the Cardano blockchain. Source code

Lesson 3: Aiken Contracts

Learn Aiken smart contract fundamentals, including minting, spending, and withdrawal validators with transaction context. Source code

Lesson 4: Contract Testing

Test Aiken smart contracts using mock transactions, the mocktail library, and dynamic failure case generation with aiken check. Source code

Lesson 5: Avoid Redundant Validation

Reduce on-chain costs by centralizing common validation logic in a withdrawal script using the withdraw-zero pattern. Source code

Lesson 6: Interpreting Blueprint

Interpret CIP-57 Plutus blueprints from Aiken contracts and generate TypeScript off-chain code using the Mesh SDK. Source code

Lesson 7: Vesting Contract

Build a vesting smart contract that locks funds and allows the beneficiary to withdraw after a lockup period. Source code

Lesson 8: Plutus NFT Contract

Create a Plutus NFT contract with multiple validators, oracle tokens, and automatically incremented indexes for non-fungibility.

Lesson 9: End-to-End Hydra

Explore Hydra, Cardano’s Layer 2 scaling solution, through an end-to-end tutorial on state channels between two participants.

Lesson 10: Web3 Services

Integrate wallet-as-a-service and transaction sponsorship to onboard users seamlessly into your Cardano application.

Tools and Resources

  • Aiken: A language for writing efficient Cardano smart contracts.
  • Mesh SDK: A TypeScript SDK for building transactions and interacting with the Cardano blockchain.
  • Blockfrost: A blockchain API provider for querying the Cardano network.
  • Cardano Preprod Testnet Faucet: Get test lovelace for development.

Source Code

All source code for this course is available on GitHub.

Get Started

Begin with Lesson 1: Hello World to set up your environment and send your first transaction.

Introduction1. Hello World