Eternal dilemma : “Shall I set up an in-house development team or hire a blockchain studio?”

Blockchain is not only shifting the way we use the Internet, but it is also revolutionizing the global ecosystem towards Internet of Value. Entrepreneurs and institutions like banks, financial institutions, healthcare industry are keen to know how they can invest in blockchain technology. We get lots of queries from clients on how to get started with blockchain development and extract maximum benefit from this digital revolution by investing in blockchain technology solutions.

The major question is “What is better? To set up an in-house team, or to use the services of an agency”

Well, there is no one size fits all solution here.

Blockchain development in itself has several different flavours. Let us consider three scenarios :

a) When you are developing your own blockchain with it’s own protocol, consensus mechanism and mining algorithm. For example, you want a blockchain that converts excess energy generated in a solar plant into coins and allows that to be traded.

b) When you are building a distributed ledger or a custom blockchain, but not from scratch. Instead you are forking out of multichain or building on top of something like HyperLedger fabric.

c) When are want to leverage ethereum and quickly rollout ERC-20 tokens or smart contracts that utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and uses the Ethereum virtual machine as its mainstay. Here the smart contracts is written out in solidity.

Each of these type of projects have different requirements in terms of the blockchain development team that you need. All three are also different when it comes to timelines and future maintenance.

Let’s take case 1, where you are rolling out your own blockchain. In such a case, you would essentially be creating a proprietary technology and hence it would make sense to assemble your in-house team.

This is because, the development is going to be in months (even years), and the product that you are building would have to be maintained in future and thus it makes a lot of sense to build your own team, as the technology is what is going to be the core of our business here. Also, it is not that easy to get developers who can build something like this from agencies or outsourcing companies.

For case 2, the scenario is different. The timeline for such product would generally be 3–6 months, with small maintenance work done later. Also, in most cases such blockchain solutions are build for enterprises that solves a certain pain point for them. For example, loyalty reward management program for a coalition OR a shared KYC data for several agencies.

While you can assemble your own team here, however since the development duration is not that large and future work on the ledger would not keep your team engaged fully, it might make more sense to hire good developers on a time and material basis from companies who already have expertise in this.

For case 3, the ecosystem is entirely varied. Here the timeline of developing a smart contract generally ranges from around a week to a month. Plus, once the contract is rolled out on the blockchain you can never change it, and hence the concept of maintenance is not there.

Besides the smart contract, the work would also involve some sort of web interface that would allow your users to interact with your smart contract. Since you need to define your entire smart contract before starting developing on it and the scope is almost finalized, it makes a lot of sense to outsource such projects out completely. The smart contracts anyways have to go through a third party audit and a bug bounty program before they can be released on the main blockchain, thereby bringing a lot of certainty to what you would roll out.

It is also noteworthy that there is a looming shortage of qualified blockchain developers globally, Jeremy Drane (former PwC FinTech director), has also quoted that their is a lack of talent in blockchain technology.

Hence entrepreneurs who want to invest in blockchain technology should consider the option of remote development by a reputed blockchain studio who would efficiently execute their blockchain based ideas by their own team of skilled blockchain professionals.

At Techracers, we specialize in creating ERC-20 token, smart contracts in solidity, building distributed ledger using Hyperledger fabric, and creating custom blockchain forked from multi chain, Ethereum development and blockchain services. As a blockchain studio,we are committed to sustain the innovative momentum of blockchain as a technology and have employed skilled professionals to facilitate development of blockchain solutions and applications. We ensure that our clients needs are aligned with our technical expertise to meet the project’s objectives within a reasonable timeframe.

Let us know what use case you have and we are sure to find a way to get it done. We could even help you assemble your own team in-house by helping you in sourcing them and vetting them technically. Look forward to partnering with you in your next big idea.

Originally Published at Techracers