A lot of coders and developers have shifted their attention from traditional projects to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. There is an abundance of job opportunities out there right now for freelance coders. In India, it seems close to 5,000 software developers could work in these industries. It’s positive news, but the demand for qualified coders will only continue to increase.
Indian Developers are Honing Their Skills
Although most people on this planet may not care too much about blockchain or cryptocurrencies at this stage, the industry is booming. The global interest in this technology has sparked a race among companies to find the world’s best developers. Freelancers are a very important group in this regard, even though these coders will need to meet very strict qualifications to land jobs.
In India, it seems a lot of coders have dreams of landing a cryptocurrency or blockchain job. With close to 5,000 individuals possessing the necessary skills to work in this particular industry, it seems to just be a matter of time before major growth is noted. There is no shortage of new blockchain and cryptocurrency companies as of right now. Hundreds if not thousands of jobs have been created by Bitcoin companies in the past few years.
While 5,000 Indian developers sounds like an impressive number, it may only be a drop in the proverbial bucket. This number represents just 0.25% of the entire Indian coding community. That is not exactly an impressive figure by any means, especially considering that there are several million software developers active in the country. Data science and cryptography skills are not part of normal training materials these days, which means coders will need to pick up these skills themselves.
It is certainly true that India has the infrastructure in place to easily triple – if not quadruple – that number. However, it will require a very costly and efficient retraining program to make that happen. Given India’s somewhat negative stance toward cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology these days, it seems unlikely the government will double down on these efforts. One does not simply become a cryptocurrency or blockchain expert overnight simply because they wrote a successful “Hello World” program the day before.
For companies looking to hire proper developers, these delays are of great concern. Indeed, there are a lot more job openings than qualified applicants as of right now. It is evident that developers can take the necessary steps to achieve greater success in this regard, although it remains to be seen if they will do so. There will be no decrease in the number of companies looking to hire new coders, but whether or not the job market can keep up is an open question.
All of this goes to show that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are in a very good place right now. There is a growing demand for qualified people, which further confirms that the industry will continue to grow for quite some time to come. For its part, Upwork is confident there will be even more job openings on its platform in the future. Blockchain was the fastest-growing skill set during Q1 of 2018, which certainly portends an interesting future.