Is being a decentralized app developer a future-proof job?
Talking about any job being “future-proof” in today’s market is dangerously, perhaps recklessly optimistic. As a preeminent historian and author Yuval Noah Harari likes to point out with a hint of doom in his voice, “This is the first time in history that we have no idea what the world will look like in 20 or 30 years.”
Harari is right. Everywhere you look, especially in economics, the future is uncertain. New technologies are developing at break-neck speed and disrupting the familiar models of doing business.
In 90’s America, nurses and engineers were in high demand — now app developers and marketing gurus have taken their places. Flexibility and a diverse set of skills are likely to be the safest bet moving forward — the ability to innovate and reinvent one’s self. Everything else seems like a fad, quick to peak and even quicker to collapse.
But what about blockchain? A lot of people are excited about it and its potential to form a new base on which to restructure economics and society. That certainly puts blockchain development in the running to be the single safest career around today.
Chained to the block
A lot of people are putting all their bread in this one basket. Blockchain certainly seems to be the culmination of years of evolution and development — the solution that answers all the crises, concerns and inefficiencies that have become visible in an ever more connected global economy.
Entrepreneurs are starting ICOs not only to make money quick and bail out — a growing number of true believers are taking the ICO path to honestly push forward with a concept they hope will remain solvent and form the backbone of tomorrow’s industries. These people are often technological and economic experts who have a full grasp of blockchain’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential.
Decentralized app developers are increasingly in demand and pay is on the rise, but could these experts be wrong about the future of blockchain?
Chinks in the chain
While it’s difficult to ignore the potential of the blockchain and the attraction of the ideas behind it, it’s also impossible to deny certain characteristics about blockchain that make it unpredictable.
First and foremost, it’s difficult to predict if blockchain will successfully capture the public consciousness. Tech-savvy entrepreneurs may see endless possibilities in the blockchain, but everyday technology users struggle to attribute value to cryptocurrencies and a system that they don’t fully understand and may even be concerned over. Blockchain entrepreneurs have their work cut out for them to convert the public into blockchain enthusiasts.
It’s also too easy to trust in ideals. Advocates for a blockchain future tend to believe with great conviction that blockchain will not only catch on but will also remain unassailable — a perfect system that will always be constantly improved upon. The truth is that we don’t know for sure. Right now, blockchain is highly secure and the benefits of transparency are too great not to pursue. But new developments could poke holes in the system, whether it takes 5 years or 30, rendering decentralized app developers mostly useless.
So, why pursue blockchain with all these doubts? Why pursue a career as a decentralized app developer if it isn’t a safe and certain bet? Well, what is safe and certain? Even if technology this day is all about trends and trying to catch the current wave, blockchain is that wave right now and all indications suggest that that won’t change within the next few years.
But there are deeper reasons to want to become decentralized app developers. The majority of the blockchain and crypto community are people who believe in the industry with great conviction. The possibilities and potential of blockchain are enough to get excited about and pursue with vigor. It’s exciting to think you might be changing the world and it’s worth trying.
