Why blockchain developers are so hard to find
If you’re reading this right now, you probably have a great new idea for blockchain technology. Maybe you want to introduce it into an industry for the very first time, or perhaps you’ve found a way to improve on blockchain itself, making it safer, more approachable or more profitable. The potential for innovation on the blockchain is endless at this point, so you might even be bursting with good ideas.
But solid concepts don’t necessarily translate into the technical know-how to turn it into reality. And even if you’ve got some of the technical prowess yourself, you’re going to want other people on your team. You need a blockchain developer. But how are you going to find one? There are three main reasons blockchain developers (especially good ones) are a rarity these days.
1. Education (or lack thereof)
If you’re running a complex website for your business, you’ll probably need to hire html, css, Java and Python coders. These coders are part of a competitive, but large field and you probably won’t have too much difficulty in hiring someone who knows what they’re doing. One of the biggest reasons there aren’t enough coders to meet demand is because the educational infrastructure is readily available, so new talent is constantly being pumped into the market.
Not so for blockchain. As a relatively new technology, courses in how to use it are far and few in between. There are individual courses at a small handful of universities that handle blockchain, but some of these focus more on the theoretical impact of blockchain technology rather than teaching practical knowledge for development. There are no degrees in blockchain technology and the result is an overall scarcity in blockchain developers.
2. ICOs and high demand
Of course, blockchain developers can only be considered scarce relative to something else. That something is demand. Well-established tech giants like IBM are increasingly looking to integrate blockchain technology into their operations. They’re doing some in-house training and experimenting themselves, but they’re also sucking up a lot of the blockchain talent on the market.
But it’s a rise in new ICOs that is really creating excess demand. The number of new ICOs has ballooned in the last couple of years as everyone with any involvement in blockchain whatsoever has seen their lucrative potential. Not all of these projects succeed, but they certainly need good blockchain developers if they want a good chance.
3. They’re expensive
All this demand means of course that what blockchain developers there are do not come cheap. So, even if you do manage to find some that are ready to work with you to develop your ideas, you’d better be prepared to pay them well in order to keep them on your team. This can be a high bar for a pre-ICO project and certainly contributes to the overall difficulty in acquiring blockchain talent.
PAI is meant to help relieve this lack of supply by allowing blockchain entrepreneurs to form their own unique blockchain solutions without the input of a development expert. Entrepreneurs can piece together their own blockchain platform by choosing from among PAI’s task-specific blockchain bots. You only pay for the functions you need and in the end, you emerge with a platform that matches your vision. Blockchain just got a whole lot easier.
