Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash
Demand has exploded for blockchain developers in a field that has the potential to disrupt traditional business models and revolutionize the way business is conducted globally.
There aren’t enough people with the right skills to fill the job openings, so developers are commanding average salaries that are off the charts — $150,000-plus per year for those with experience and $110,000 for beginners.
Blockchain was the most in-demand hard skill of 2020, according to LinkedIn. Hired.com, a mainstream job portal, reported a 517 percent increase in demand for blockchain developers in 2019. Leading blockchain recruiters include Amazon, Microsoft, American Express, JPMorgan Chase, Oracle and IBM.
A growing number of universities globally are offering blockchain degrees or courses to meet the growing demand, such as MIT and the University of Oxford. Or you can take free massive open online courses (MOOCs). There are executive programs and certificates aimed at business professionals too.
Gregory McCubbin, the founder of Dapp University, sells courses on how to become a blockchain developer. You can earn more than $100,000 a year as a complete beginner in blockchain development with zero years of software experience and less than a year of blockchain experience, McCubbin says.
Not much information is available online about McCubbin. A Reddit user trying to decide whose course to take posted, “Can’t find anything about Gregory anywhere on the internet except his own marketing materials.”
Dapp University offers courses that train users to learn to build their own blockchain apps, decentralized applications (DApps) and crowd-sale smart contracts, among other things. Course material is delivered via a website and the Dapp University YouTube channel.
“Even beginning blockchain developers can command six-figure salaries,” McCubbin wrote. “It seems a small amount of blockchain knowledge goes a long way. Because the field is so new, blockchain ‘experts’ with deep six-figure salaries might only have two-to-four years of blockchain experience (though they likely have several years of other software experience).”
The average blockchain developer salary ranges from $150,000 to $175,000 per year, according to Hired.com. The average salary is more than $157,000 per year, online recruiting firm Ziprecruiter reported. And the median annual salary is as high as $127,000 based upon data from management consulting firm Janco Associates, according to McCubbin.
“Any amount of blockchain knowledge is valuable,” McCubbin wrote. “While U.S. companies pay the most, these jobs are often available worldwide because blockchain development is very remote-friendly.”
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MIT offers a short online course, “MIT Blockchain Technologies: Business Innovation and Application.” It promises a deeper understanding of the capabilities and limitations of blockchain technology, a framework for a blockchain-based strategy that addresses a challenge in your own business and knowledge of how blockchain powers bitcoin and other token-based apps.
Oxford University offers Blockchain Strategy, a six-week, self-paced online course of seven-to-10 hours per week for entrepreneurs, professionals or people exploring a career change. Martin Schmalz, program director for the Oxford course and an associate professor of finance at Saïd Business School, promoted the course in its online description. “Dominant players who can establish their blockchain as the market solution should be making the moves—and making them now,” Schmalz said.
Here are more resources to learn blockchain and get certified, courtesy of Geekflare:
Udemy offers a course to help you master blockchain technology with a deeper understanding of its concepts and real-life examples.
Coursera offers an Introduction to Blockchain Technologies by INSEAD.
Edureka offers blockchain certification training. Top blockchain experts have curated this course and it’s “one of the best you can try your hands on,” wrote Durga Prasad Acharya for Geekflare.
Coursera offers a blockchain specialization course online and at universities including the State University of New York.
The book, “Mastering Blockchain” by Imran Bashir, provides an in-depth understanding of blockchain and its theoretical foundations, how to build decentralized apps, and write smart contracts.
edX offers courses available on blockchain and related topics from top universities globally including MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley, along with Linux Foundation.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble?
CodeAcademy offers a blockchain certification course that takes about two hours to complete and requires no pre-requisites.
Blockchain Council offers blockchain certification training with an overview of use in healthcare, auto, financial, supply chain, cybersecurity, and other industries.
IBM offers numerous blockchain courses to help you master the technology and get certified. More than 15,000 people have taken the six-hour Blockchain Foundation Developer course, which covers structures, tools and components needed to develop a blockchain and complete projects.
Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash
