The Blockchain Talent Shortage: Opt for Global Freelance Developers

Richard Clayton

July 23, 2019

Today, blockchain is one of the fastest-growing areas for all types of businesses and holds the potential to improve security and transparency for companies everywhere, and in every industry. Financial institutions like JP Morgan Chase and retail outlets like Walmart are eager to introduce blockchain to their business by hiring top developers.

The need for blockchain skills isn’t just short-term. Blockonomics reported that in Q1 2018, demand for blockchain skills grew on freelancer marketplaces like Upwork by 6,000% in year-on-year growth, and it had grown by 2,000% for the nine months before that. Let’s take a closer look at the global talent shortage for top blockchain developers.

Blockchain startups are falling short of skilled professionals

Demand for blockchain skills is coming from every corner of the economy. It’s not limited to hi-tech companies; businesses in every sector are seeing the benefits of blockchain and want to hire a skilled developer. Large corporations like Samsung, Amazon, IBM, and Salesforce are seeking this type of talent, and that makes it particularly difficult for small, untested startups to compete for the limited pool of skilled workers.

In the UK, only 11% of businesses expect to be able to hire the tech professionals they need. In the US, China, and across Asia and Australia, the story is similar; there simply aren’t enough skilled professionals to meet the demand for tech workers, let alone blockchain developers.

Fixing the lack of blockchain developers isn’t going to be easy

The lack of blockchain skills is something that’s affecting companies all around the world, so it’s not just a problem in one or two regions, but worldwide.

Blockchain adoption rose suddenly in 2017 and 2018 when the benefits of blockchain became clear to so many companies and industries at more or less the same time. It’s not something that gradually entered people’s awareness, so there simply wasn’t time for education to keep pace with demand. Most university and college courses in technology, computer developing, and coding still don’t cover blockchain, meaning that companies could be wondering how to find blockchain developers for quite a while.

How to deal with the blockchain developer shortage

For companies that want to introduce blockchain, there’s no choice but to find some kind of solution. Here are some of the ways that companies are responding to the shortage of blockchain developers.

1. In-house training

Companies are encouraging their current employees to add blockchain skills to their existing abilities. It’s important to realize that people who already have a good knowledge of coding and software development won’t take long to learn blockchain. In India, one company found that it takes around two weeks for a regular developer to learn the basics of blockchain.

What’s more, a lot of blockchain-related jobs don’t need an expert-level knowledge of blockchain, or even coding skills. All that’s needed is a basic understanding of the technology behind the process. In the US, the Institute of iBusiness Council offers blockchain certification programs for professionals with and without coding experience.

2. Education for the future

The only way to deal with this demand in the long term is to increase the number of courses and degrees in the industry. There are still very few software development and computer programming courses that cover blockchain, but that’s starting to change. In Australia, the RMIT University announced their first degree course in blockchain in February 2018, and New York University announced one a few months later. Other colleges are also starting to offer online and on-campus courses.

3. Freelancers

A number of businesses are filling the talent shortage with freelancers. According to the Upwork report, demand for freelancers with blockchain skills has skyrocketed. New freelance sites only for blockchain workers, like Ethlance, Blocklancer, and Cryptotask, have opened to help companies hire blockchain developers. These freelancers can charge between $50 and $250 per hour. And of course, existing sites like Upwork, Toptal, and Fiverr are still great ways to hire freelance developers.

The bottom line

Due to the sudden boom in demand for blockchain professionals, companies of all sizes are finding it difficult to hire a blockchain developer. There’s no quick fix for the shortage of top blockchain talent, but a combination of investing in ongoing blockchain education, in-house training, and the freelance market can help businesses to find blockchain developers they need.

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