Along with the crypto craze of 2018 comes a deeper understanding of Bitcoin’s underlying technology and how it can be applied in enterprise solutions to streamline everything from supply chain logistics to paper processing to remittances to managing large data sets and financial transactions.
It’s poised to touch every sector from e-commerce to fintech, with big corporate brands running their own blockchain test pilots.
But the dizzying amount of interest is highlighting the extremely steep learning curve about blockchain, as well as the many technical challenges of interoperability, integrating existing systems and creating hybrid networks. Companies are reportedly having a rough time finding qualified applicants who can fill blockchain related job listings, making anyone who has a zen for digital ledger technology the hottest and smartest brain in the room.
Jump on the Blockchain Train
The decentralization revolution is being televised on websites cataloging blockchain job offers. For professional developers stuck in a dead language or hobbyist coders hoping to break into major corporations or looking to join a visionary startup, the blockchain boom is here. LinkedIn has an estimated 2,000 positions open, and several other job market platforms are posting record listings.
A new report by CryptoFundResearch assesses more than 300 cities across the US and ranks the top US cities for blockchain and cryptocurrency jobs by using five key indicators:
- Job listings – 30%
- Top 300 blockchain companies (weighted) – 30%
- Number of blockchain startups in the last 120 days – 10%
- Hedge funds and venture capitalists specializing in cryptocurrencies – 20%
- General job market – 10%
The results peg San Francisco and New York as the two stand-outs by a mile, with California dominating the list. It boasts 50% of the top 20 cities with leading scores from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, San Jose, San Diego, Oakland and Santa Clara.
Home to Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area continues to crank out leading computer scientists and software developers from Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, UCLA and several other universities. California is also a magnet for startup founders fresh from YCombinator, Singularity University and other incubator programs.
While Wall Street has been battling to retain top talent, stemming the flow of executives from Goldman Sachs and the investment banking firms that defined an era of corporatism, its fintech is being transformed at a rapid clip by blockchain solutions that are promising to accelerate the speed of settlements and drastically reduce costs. These new protocols and fundamental changes to routine business practices are ushering in a whole new market for qualified developers.
Top 20 Cities for Blockchain Jobs
| Rank | City | State | Related Companies | Score |
| 1 | San Francisco | CA | Coinbase, Ripple, CoinTracker, Harbor, Tezos, [Metastable, Polychain Capital, Hard Yaka, Pantera Capital, Kraken]* | 81.31 |
| 2 | New York | NY | Chainalysis, Celsius Network, tZero [JP Morgan, Gemini]* | 78.97 |
| 3 | Chicago | IL | Omega Grid, Bloq, Tally Capital | 21.32 |
| 4 | Los Angeles | CA | Everipedia, Lucid Sight, MyEtherWallet | 21.15 |
| 5 | Boston | MA | Airfox, Flipside Crypto, Voatz, Circle | 19.9 |
| 6 | Palo Alto | CA | Robinhood, 1WorldOnline, Swarm Fund, Boardwalktech | 19.54 |
| 7 | Austin | TX | Tenfold, InXero, BitTeller, Multicoin Capital | 18.81 |
| 8 | Menlo Park | CA | Iotex | 14.57 |
| 9 | Seattle | WA | Cakecodes, UnikoinGold, Coinme | 13.7 |
| 10 | Denver | CO | Zerocoin, LDGR Capital, Ideas by Nature, SALT Lending | 13.66 |
| 11 | Atlanta | GA | Storj Labs, Verady, The Monetizr | 12.68 |
| 12 | Sunnyvale | CA | Crowdz, TigerEx, Thunder Token | 12.61 |
| 13 | Mountain View | CA | BitClave, Skuchain, Nebel.tv | 12.11 |
| 14 | San Jose | CA | Zettabytes, Qulsar | 12.01 |
| 15 | Portland | OR | The VillageFund | 11.54 |
| 16 | San Diego | CA | Ben, Unicoin Blockchain | 11.13 |
| 17 | Nashville | TN | PointNurse | 10.74 |
| 18 | Oakland | CA | CryptoMove | 10.74 |
| 19 | Santa Clara | CA | WeTuring, SharkPay, Evercoin | 10.7 |
| 20 | Washington, DC | BigDataGuys, Global Blockchain Business Council, Gladius | 10.53 |
Source: CryptoFundResearch
Related: Bounty Programs: Get Paid as a Blockchain Developer – Without Much Experience
