Becoming A Blockchain Developer At Bitpanda After Resigning From My Job At A Bank

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Name: Icyüz Ilker

Role: Blockchain Developer @ Bitpanda

Location: Austria

Icyüz has a Bachelors in Electrical & Electronics Engineering. After graduating, he moved to Vienna for his Masters. Following which he worked as a data analyst. Then, he joined Bitpanda as a Blockchain Developer.

1. When Was Your First Contact With Blockchain Technology?

It was at the end of 2013 when a friend told me that Bitcoin had exceeded $1,000. Like most people, I ignored it, thinking it was just another virtual currency.

Then in the spring of 2017, I needed a payment option for a project. While investigating, I discovered Bitcoin & Ethereum. I bought 2 Ethers for $40~ each for testing purposes.

2. How Did You Become A Blockchain Developer?

I’d been working as a data analyst in a bank. On top of that, many of the side-projects I was working on were mainly in Python. As I discovered cryptocurrencies, I noticed that they could be a convenient payment option.

This got me excited!

I started to learn everything about then, and the underpinning technology. I began to teach myself Solidity, the language to develop smart contracts in the Ethereum network. The deeper I got into this technology, the more I realised how far behind the banking industry was technologically.

I soon started looking for a blockchain role.

Bitpanda was the first company I applied to. They sent me an online test, and the day after I did the test, I resigned from my job because this gave me the confidence that I could become a blockchain developer.

Fortunately, I was invited to an interview and started work the next month.

3. What’s The Biggest Challenge You’ve Had With Blockchain?

Like all new technologies, blockchain has its difficulties and problems.

Lack of documentation and libraries are the most common problems that we encounter in development. The issues are mostly on less popular coins. As teams behind a coin grow, it becomes more stable and more comfortable to work with.

4. What Challenges Are There For The Adoption Of Blockchain?

For blockchain to be accepted by the masses, a technological advancement needs to be easily reachable and useable by the ‘average’ person. It also needs to solve a problem.

At the moment it’s just early adopters and those who want to get rich using it. However, apart from cryptocurrencies, blockchain itself has vast technological potential.

5. What Advice Would You Give To ARookie Developer?

Like every career choice, it’s essential to love the work you do.

If you’re interested in contributing to future technologies and love coding, then you should become a blockchain developer.

In my experience, the best way to learn is by doing. You can use blockchain in your projects, or try to contribute to open-source projects which can help you to accelerate your learning curve with support from other developers.