Share of Cryptocurrency Jobs Grew 1,457% In 4 Years

The share of cryptocurrency jobs per million has risen 1,457% over the past four years, according to a study by job site Indeed.com. VentureBeat reports: Indeed analyzed millions of job postings on Indeed.com to unpack how Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain trends have affected the job market. Searches for Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency roles are going down -- yet employer demand has skyrocketed. According to Indeed, in the four-year period between September 2015 and September 2019, the share of these jobs per million grew by 1,457%. In that same time period, the share of searches per million increased by 469%.

In the past year, the share of cryptocurrency job postings per million on Indeed.com has increased by 26%, while the share of searches per million for jobs has decreased by 53%. Bitcoin's volatility seems to correlate with job seeker interest, and the change in Bitcoin price this year might be why job searches have declined. Employers, however, are doubling down on the technology, which uses decentralized ledgers to produce secure and transparent transactions. The report says that if you want a better chance at getting a job in this field you should be a programmer familiar with basic cryptography, P2P networks, and a language like C++, Java, Python, or JavaScript (along with certain soft crypto skills). To stand out, you should learn new blockchain development languages, like Hyperledger, Bitcoin Script, Ethereum's Solidity, the Ripple protocol, or even languages currently in development -- like Rholang.

The top hirers are as follows: Deloitte, IBM, Accenture, Cisco, Collins Aerospace, Ernst & Young, Coinbase, Overstock, Ripple, Verizon, Circle, Kraken, ConsenSys, JP Morgan Chase, and Signature Bank.

Re:Hurr Durr

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Nah, this is not the "tulips" phenomenon. This is the "growth from zero" phenomenon. It is always spectacular in percentages, because when you divide by zero you get infinity, and when you divide by a number close to zero, you get something very large.

You can easily see when the "growth numbers", i.e. percentages, are irrelevant - when there ain't no absolute numbers in there that will let you put things in perspective. 1470% growth in 4 years may sound amazing. "Growth from 10 people to 147" over the same 4 years - not so much.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

And "Growth from 1 people to 14.7" over the same 4 years means someone lost a limb or two.

Re:

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

In the blockchain food chain you gotta do what you gotta do.

I retired.

[frup]

I'd love to say that in 2013 I used to work for Bitcoin. 12 hour days clicking around for .1btc. My computer was mining from an fgpa and I traded deligebtly through the highs and lows. Everyone thought I was mad but now I am retired with a collection of rare gold coins. In reality I just browse Slashdot and still have to work.

"More jobs" sounds nice but ....

[CptJeanLuc]

... I would like to see "carbon footprint per employment" statistics comparing that with other jobs. I am guessing bitcoin jobs would be number 2 on the list after professional deforesters from Amazon or wood burning countries like Indonesia.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You miss the point. Do you know the carbon footprint of money printing? Yes, printing money cost nothing to the state. But the consequences, once the money is spent are real: Funding wars, etc...

Re:

[phantomfive]

Look at the list of companies. For example, IBM uses "blockchain technology" as an umbrella marketing term to cover anything related to cryptographic key signing or tracking.

So if you want an RFID inventory tracking system, IBM will tell you that it's blockchain technology, even if they store the information in a standard postgresql database with update-only tables. It's marketing.

Re:

[paradigm82]

As far as I can tell, when IBM uses "blockchain" it usually something to do with blockchain. However, what it exactly is can be difficult to entangle. Sometimes it's the hardware for hosting blockchains, other times it's software or services related to blockchain, and any combination of public/private is possible. However, I have yet to see described just 1 "IBM-backed" use case where it is shown exactly what type of blockchain it is, what role it plays in the solution and why it's a wise choice. I don't ev

Blockchain Hyoe

[LZ_Mordan]

Blockchains are hyped of course.

People think that you can retrofit the blockchain to use cases that don't need one.

Blockchain is needed when you need publicly visible very hard to censor information.

It so happens that Bitcoin is trying to apply this to money. While I want my money to be hidden, I want money of the politics/lobbying to be publicly auditable.

I also like the Pascal blockchain where you can register a name and an ip on the blockchain. But the question is.. do we need a decentraliz

Re:

[Joce640k]

I also like the Pascal blockchain where you can register a name and an ip on the blockchain. But the question is.. do we need a decentralized uncensorable DNS?

No, because Blockchain only works when a bad agent can't ever have more than 50% of the computing power.

How much computing power is being applied to keep your decentralized DNS safe? Is it more than a government could muster?

Re:

[TechyImmigrant]

I also like the Pascal blockchain where you can register a name and an ip on the blockchain. But the question is.. do we need a decentralized uncensorable DNS?

No, because Blockchain only works when a bad agent can't ever have more than 50% of the computing power.

How much computing power is being applied to keep your decentralized DNS safe? Is it more than a government could muster?

That only applies to proof-of-work style systems.

Re:

[paradigm82]

Which is basically any of the chains. Some even believe a solid proof-of-stake is impossible (for most use case that could have been relevant).

Re:

[paradigm82]

I don't know anything about Pascal. But immediate questions that come up... who controls allocations of names to IP? What if two persons wants the same name? Is it just who registers it first (and then it's locked forever)? Can anyone then just go in free of charge and grab all the domains there are? If not, is there a central authority controlling the allocation (and deallocation)? If so, why couldn't said authority just sign DNS records with a private key (easily verifiable by anyone). Who runs the nodes

Re:

[LZ_Mordan]

its POW for the security model

who controls allocations of names to IP? the person who owns the key of the account.

What if two persons wants the same name? first come first served

Is it just who registers it first (and then it's locked forever)? Yes.

Can anyone then just go in free of charge and grab all the domains there are? No. You need to buy accounts. One account. One Name. If not, is there a central authority controlling the allocation (and deallocation)? the blockchain consensus controls

Hmm...

[paradigm82]

I would have the perfect background for working on this, having implemented large-scale cryptographic solutions for the past 20 years. Maybe I could earn twice what I do today. But I wouldn't be able to survive in this- I would have to cringe 100 times every day when hearing all the blockchain nonsense use-cases babbled out by people who don't understand anything about cryptography or blockchain for that matter. The blockchain primitive has been hyped up as a general thing, just because it worked for one use-case (coins). The more of the other potential use cases I read (and then think) about, the more I become aware of how limited blockchain is and how poor a fit it is for most use cases.

Re:

[paradigm82]

My real fear is that Blockchain will now be added on to tons of products where it doesn't add value, but just so the people who have worked on it can show they delivered something. At the cost of unnecessary complexity, fragility, energy usage, and a blurred security picture of the whole solution.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

Blockchain does not automatically equate high energy requirements.
See Reddcoin and Ripple as examples.

Re: Hmm...

[paradigm82]

I didn't say all downsides apply to every implementation. But unnecessary use of Blockchain adds one or more of the downsides mentioned.

Re:

[TechyImmigrant]

Me too. I'll stick to making crypto primitives.

More coding jobs

[Powercntrl]

Here I expected cryptocurrency jobs would be things like advising people not to put their kid's college fund into Bitcoin, and loaning emotional support dogs to people who just lost their life savings.

I should've figured it would just be PHBs wanting more trending buzzwords implemented in their latest software projects. Blockchain is the new cowbell.

Ask Slashdot

[geekymachoman]

Crypto is dead. Slashdot knows this ! ...and if it's *NOT* dead, then let's talk about carbon footprint, but please... let's not talk about the actual topic.

How many?

[jeremyp]

Four years ago, there was one person working with Bitcoin, now there are fifteen full time workers and the original person is semi-retired.

These percentage rise statistics don't work when something is new and the base number is very small.

Re:

[nickovs]

Very true. In fact from the year before that first job started until the year after we saw an infinite rise in the number of cryptocurrency jobs! Woohoo! Hodl to the moon!!!