<aside>

DirectEd x CATS Hackathon Aiken Development Workshops

Program Duration: November 9 - December 16, 2025

Workshop Format: Twice weekly (2 hours per session)

Target Audience: Entry-level developers new to Cardano

Locations: Abuja, Kigali, and Addis Ababa

Program Overview

This intensive workshop series introduces participants to Cardano blockchain development using Aiken, a modern smart contract programming language. Through eight comprehensive modules, participants will progress from environment setup to building complete decentralized applications.

Workshop Structure

Each 2-hour workshop follows this format:

Learning Approach

This document serves as a self-paced learning roadmap. Participants are encouraged to:

Module M000: Cardano Background & Development Setup

Welcome to Cardano blockchain development! Before we dive into writing smart contracts, we need to understand some fundamental concepts about how Cardano works and get your development environment ready. In this module, you'll learn what makes Cardano different from other blockchains, particularly its UTxO accounting model, and you'll set up all the tools you'll need for the rest of this course.

What You'll Learn

Key Topics

Assignment

Set up your complete Aiken development environment, install required tools, and successfully run all tests in the course repository. Document any installation challenges and solutions.

📚 View Detailed Module Content →

Module M001: Writing Your First Smart Contract

Now that your environment is set up, it's time to write your first Cardano smart contract! In this module, we'll explore what validators are and how they work. You'll learn the difference between spending validators (which control how funds are unlocked) and minting validators (which control how tokens are created). By the end of this module, you'll have written, tested, and compiled your first validators.

What You'll Learn

Key Topics

Assignment

Create custom validators with both spending and minting examples. Define custom types for Datum and Redeemer, write comprehensive test cases demonstrating both success and failure scenarios, and generate script addresses and policy IDs.

📚 View Detailed Module Content →

Module M002: Testing with Mock Transactions

In the last module, you learned how to write basic validators. But to test them properly, we need to understand how transactions work on Cardano. Every validator operates in the context of a transaction, so in this module, we'll learn how to build realistic mock transactions for testing. You'll master creating transactions with inputs, outputs, minting, locking funds at validator addresses, and unlocking them with redeemers.

What You'll Learn

Key Topics

Assignment

Create mock transactions demonstrating minting multiple NFTs, locking funds at a script address, and unlocking them. Write both passing and failing tests, and document transaction flows with detailed comments.

📚 View Detailed Module Content →

Module M003: Smart Contracts with Validation Logic

Now that you can write validators and test them with mock transactions, it's time to add real validation logic! In this module, you'll learn how to make your validators actually check things - like verifying a redeemer value, comparing datum fields, checking who signed a transaction, or ensuring a transaction happens within a specific time window. These are the building blocks of all Cardano smart contracts.

What You'll Learn

Key Topics