
Blockchain Developers — the New Superheroes
Author: Jason King
It’s hard to turn on the TV or scan the internet without hearing some reference to the rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As early investors rush to take advantage of the speculative investment potential of emerging cryptocurrencies, the rest of the world tries to catch up with the multi-billion dollar phenomenon. According to Coin Schedule, in 2017, an estimated $3.2 billion was invested in just over 200 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the latest “crowdfunding” investment vehicle for cryptocurrency projects. .
The real story, though, may not be the cryptocurrencies themselves, but the underlying blockchain technology, which promises transparent, scalable, and cost-effective solutions to global problems. We’re talking about problems so large in scope it will take superhuman effort to address them.
In an interview with McKinsey & Co., Tapscott Group CEO Don Tapscott, coauthor of the book “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World,” says that blockchain could literally revolutionize the world economy by offering privacy protection and a platform for truth and trust.
There’s no limit to the potential of a blockchain-enabled future. Here’s just a sample:
- Improved carbon emissions trading to help address climate issues
- Reduced corruption in the humanitarian aid sector so more of the resources reach those intended
- Increased transparency and efficiency in the real estate market
- Improved identity and security in the travel industry
- Elimination of modern slavery through supply-chain transparency
- And many, many more.
We have the technology to make these visions into a reality, but we’re missing one key element: the highly-trained workforce. If blockchain is the technology that will save the world, who’s going to wield the tool to build the promises of tomorrow? To make these visions reality, we need a new breed of superheroes — blockchain developers. Unfortunately, they are in short supply.
IBM Vice President of Blockchain Technology Jerry Cuomo states that many of the new roles created to execute exciting new blockchain projects remain vacant because demand is outpacing supply. IBM has more than 400 blockchain projects in progress, employs more than 1,600 employees and has more than 150 job openings related to blockchain.
And IBM isn’t the only company feeling the pinch.
Steven Nerayoff, the Founder and CEO of Maple Ventures, a Venture Capital firm focusing on emerging blockchain-based technologies, estimates there are only a few hundred people who understand blockchain development at a foundational level and available for work.
In “The Business Blockchain,” author William Mougayar estimates that as of mid-2016, there were only a few thousand developers dedicated to writing software for cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, or blockchain in general, compared to the nine million Java developers worldwide, and about 18.5 million software developers in the world. He is quoted in Bitcoin Magazine as saying, “We can’t avoid not having a critical mass of knowledgeable software engineers that know how to program blockchains and develop blockchain applications.”
And while unaccredited blockchain coding courses have sprung up in an attempt to meet the growing demand, they’re plagued by inefficiency and poor curriculum design. None of the blockchain “bootcamp” courses currently offered are standardized, meaning that when a company hires someone who is “blockchain certified,” there’s no telling exactly what that means — or if the employee has the skills to complete the job.
The need is clear. So where will the world’s blockchain superheroes come from?
The good news is, we don’t have to import them from Krypton or wait for one to be bit by a radioactive blockchain arachnid. Many current developers are eager to build the skills necessary to work on the innovative and exciting blockchain projects.
What the industry needs is a standardized, world-class curriculum from an accredited educational institution, one that companies, aspiring blockchain coders, and investors can all trust. This is the only solution that can remove the looming industry-wide bottleneck that can — and will — derail the promise of blockchain.
Jason King is a Humanitarian Hacker, feeding the hungry as the Executive Director of Unsung.org. Known for running across the country to raise bitcoin for the homeless in 2014, King is a long-standing member of the crypto community and continues to solve to the sector’s most pressing problems as Co-Founder of Kingsland University — School of Blockchain, the world’s first university-accredited blockchain training program. Find out more about Kingsland’s leading-edge education at KingslandUniversity.com
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