How the blockchain will turn over the labor market
The appearance of blockchain technology is compared with the creation of the steam engine or the Internet. A revolutionary leap is a revolution in all spheres of the economy. The labor market mirrors the situation in other sectors. Blockchain is already creating new professions and provoking the extinction of some old ones. Details from Taras Semenov, CEO of CarTaxi.
Professions of a new era
Business actively involves technology to solve its own problems: saving on costs and reducing risks of fraud. According to research firm Smith & Crown, in the first half of 2017, blockchain start-ups attracted over a billion dollars through ICO — ten times more than in 2016. The governments of most countries of the world also began to perceive blockchain as a technology capable of improving the economic performance of the state. In 2017, Great Britain and Russia put blockchain as the key role in the digital development strategy of the countries. The US and China are introducing this technology into government processes. Many other states do not lag behind.
All this immediately affected the labor market. In June, the Financial Times published an article about this based on LinkedIn data. Compared to 2016, the number of job offers in the field of blockchain posted in the business network has grown 3-fold. And this number is growing by 40% quarterly. LinkedIn is already considering the inclusion of blockchain in the list of basic desired skills, the newspaper notes.
Russian recruiting sites also note an increase in demand for blockchain-specialists. So, on the HeadHunter platform in the first half of 2017, vacancies in the field of blockchain increased by 10 times since the first half of 2016. On the site SuperJob.ru employers post request for such applicants about 10 thousand times monthly.
According to Jerry Cuomo, vice president of IBM, salaries in projects based on blockchain are significantly higher than in similar positions in other projects due to the fact that the demand for employees in this area exceeds the supply. In addition, in the future, completely new professions will appear on the labor market, which will serve the blockchain industry. For example, consultants on ICO or crypto-currencies are already relevant.
The demand for blockchain specialization is reflected in the sphere of education. For example, in the US, there are courses on crypto-currencies and blockchain in the Stanford, California, Massachusetts universities. The first European educational institution, which plans to launch similar courses this year, may be University of Edinburgh. There is also a demand for courses on specialized online platforms. For example, on the Udemy website, the demand for blockchain courses jumped by 978% compared to last year. In Russia, the idea of training for blockchain is supported at the state level: recently the founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin and the head of Vnesheconombank (VEB) Sergey Gorkov signed a partnership agreement, which includes joint training of specialists in the field of blockchain.
Endangered professions
Serious changes in the structure of the labor market in the world began long before the appearance of the blockchain, and they are connected with the global automation of many processes. According to a Bloomberg study, in the United States in 2016, three-quarters of the cuts fell on the services sector, whereas before, most of the cuts were related to the sphere of production.
Because of the blockchain, first of all, the intermediaries and managers working with document circulation will leave the market of services. The meaning of technology lies in the possibility of reliable information storage not in a centralized database, but in a decentralized system. Accordingly, there is no need to verify the information, re-check it, and so on. In other words, the need for human resources to work with information is minimized: data, documents, figures. And this means that the need for the work of notaries, auditors, clerks, administrators, small officials and other managers of the lowest level disappears.
There are already many examples of successful implementation of the technology. For example, in Georgia, the ownership of land is registered on the blockchain. That is, the blockchain-system acts as a notary office. Each person who purchased a plot of land saves up to $ 200 and several hours: the procedure can be performed through a smartphone. The state will save millions of dollars in the future.
Another example is the dispatching system, the relevance of which will also go down thanks to the automation of processes and smart contracts based on the blockchain. They guarantee the validity of the transaction without involving a dispatcher or other intermediary. This algorithm is what CarTaxi is built on, a car towing service, which, thanks to the built-in geolocation system, connects the drivers and the nearest tow truck. This reduces the cost of the service for the driver and provides the customer with car towing services. The service is paid by using a smart contract based on Ethereum.
So, first of all, an professions that deal with being an intermediary or handling paper documentation. On the other hand, it can not be said that there will be no need for them at all. For example, real estate business by itself will remain, but the range of services offered by real estate agents will change. The legal side of real estate transactions will be taken by the blockchain, but the role of a specialist, as an expert and a professional consultant, will remain at least partially for people.
Self employment
Blockchain opens new opportunities for the development of private entrepreneurship. They are given, for example, by the same projects that work on the principle of Uber. Thanks to such services, private traders can compete with large corporations. Previously, it didn’t seem possible, given the coverage and costs of promoting companies. Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, believes that in the future there will be companies that will work as a self-regulated system. For example, taxi drivers will register themselves and pay for their own services.
By the way, the management model that excludes the need for a vertical system of subordination and based on blockchain already exists. It is called DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization. In this model there are no leaders in the usual sense of the word. Every decision in the company is made through the vote of all members of its team. Such a system motivates each employee for the result and optimizes the costs of the business due to its self-organization. Whether this model will be actively used, so far the question is open.
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