Ƀuilding a Ƀridge to the Ƀlockchain Economy
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times 📈 📉
2019: While the initial hype has died down from new technologies like Blockchain & Crypto-currency from speculators, developer interest in blockchain has never been higher than it is right now.
Conversely, if you ask any blockchain-based project what their biggest challenge is, you will hear: “finding qualified developers to build out and on top of our protocols and platforms”.
While new educational resources are starting to emerge to help developers get up to speed on modern technologies like blockchain, many talented developers are still sitting on the sidelines waiting to participate.
“An experienced blockchain developer can command $220,000 a year…and the demand is quickly increasing. Sometimes they get five job offers a day.” — Jared Kenna
Globally, only 7,000 to 8,000 individuals are currently developing for the blockchain with a wide range of proficiency levels.
The goal of Bridge Academy is simply:
To accelerate the entry of talented developers into the bleeding edge of technology.
What is Bridge Academy?
Part bootcamp. Part trade-school. Part accelerator. Part fellowship program.
Bridge.Academy fills the gap between learning and practice, giving developers who join a crash-course in topics like blockchain & dApp development as well as modern full-stack development tools and techniques.
Bridge fellows are taught to bridge the gap between theory and practice and prepare themselves for remote jobs working with cutting edge technology companies .
Through a series of online tutorials and tutorials, practice via real-world exercises and a final ‘capstone’ project, developers are able to quickly come up to speed on the latest blockchain and development technologies and build their technical and soft skills in the process.
Bridge Academy for Developers
When designing the Bridge Academy program for developers, we had to take these truths in mind:
- Modern development can be done from anywhere — just like YC isn’t focused on companies already in Silicon Valley, having a global and open application process is essential. Also, since Blockchains are open source by nature this lends itself to open, permissionless forking and development experimentation for a more hands-on approach to learning by doing.
- Talent is globally distributed while opportunities are not — for each talented engineer that has found their way to a high-paying job in Silicon Valley, we believe that there are 100 others that have such potential.
- It is increasingly hard to scale an engineering team in Silicon Valley— Fact: The average Silicon Valley engineer retains for 13 months. If you factor in the time to hire (~1–2 months), onboard (1–2 months), and handoff (0.5 months), you get about nine months of productive work.
Bridge Academy for Technology Partners
For Blockchain Projects and Silicon Valley Startups seeking to grow their pool of applicants. Bridge Academy helps them with:
- Sourcing un-tapped pools of talent — outside of San Francisco, New York, Berlin, and the usual suspects, Bridge is aimed at widening the pool of talent into areas, not previously to be bleeding edge technology hotbeds.
- Building more accessible on-ramps for 3rd party developers — building an ecosystem of developers requires lowering the barrier towards education/adoption and skills required to build on top of core protocols. That is where Bridge Academy will provide sponsored fellowships and apprenticeships to bring on-ramps for new and previously unproven talent into the ecosystem.
Program Overview
The Bridge Academy program is broken down into three distinct phases:
The Phases
- Accelerated Learning — 4 Weeks — Accelerated Training Program: Guided curriculum videos and exercises online, students can ask questions of mentors via 1 hour weekly live hangouts & slack “office hours”.
- “Capstone Project” Phase — 4 Weeks — Project-phase: Fellows submit proposals to projects and are chosen. Projects may also submit their own proposals for projects.
- Apprenticeship Phase — 4 Weeks — Through our hiring network and different open source projects we’ve put together a list of projects that need help. Each fellow will get matched with one of these projects to work with for a minimum of 4 weeks with the option to extend the apprenticeship if both parties agree.
The Tracks
- Blockchain Developer Track — designed for developers looking to contribute work in the Blockchain industry on core protocols and dApps.
- Full-stack Developer Track — designed for full-stack developers looking to modernize their skills and prepare for a role as a remote full-stack developer at a Silicon Valley tech company.
