Blockchain developer – how to hire the right professional

Maciej Zieliński

16 May 2021
Blockchain developer – how to hire the right professional

There are hundreds of new projects using blockchain technology every month around the world. It is estimated that by 2025, the value of the blockchain market will reach 39.5 billion. Therefore, blockchain remains one of the few industries where the demand for specialists so far exceeds the supply. In that case, which blockchain developer will meet your company's expectations and how to find one?

How much demand is there for Blockchain developers?

Entrepreneurs around the world are investing more and more money in blockchain development, and companies like JP Morgan, Oracle, Amazon, and Facebook are already using blockchain technology to handle their daily financial operations. 

If the number of top companies, including the world's largest banks and real estate giants, interested in blockchain technology is growing every day, there is basically no doubt that the demand for Blockchain developers is also growing. 

That's why LinkedIn has already rated blockchain as the most needed skill in 2020. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic has ranked Blockchain programmers among the fastest growing occupations in 2019-2020.

What skills a blockchain developer should have?

We have already written more about the skills needed by a Blockchain programmer in our article Blockchain programmer - how to become one?  

In a nutshell, every Blockchain programmer should understand the concept and tenets of Blockchain technology, cryptography, and be comfortable with topics such as tokens, smart contracts, decentralized applications and registries, and be fluent in the necessary programming languages. 

What programming languages should a blockchain programmer know?

The blockchain programmer you hire for your company should be proficient in all or most of the following programming languages:

  • C++
  • Scala
  • Python
  • Java
  • Javascript
  • Golang
  • Solidity

In addition, you should look for a blockchain developer who:

  • They previously worked with OOPS (Object-Oriented Programming Structure), this structure allows the program to be quickly updated when needed.
  • Deep understanding of language syntax makes a really big difference with Dapps
  • Be able to implement multithreading 
blockchain developer

Specific skills a Blockchain developer should have

A Blockchain developer should have a deep understanding of Blockchain technology and its applications. As a rule of thumb, a Blockchain programmer will be comfortable with the following concepts, which you should also be familiar with before interviewing him:

SHA (Security Hash Algorithm) - its familiarity is an absolute must, make sure that your company's Blockchain developer candidate knows the difference between SHA-1 and SHA-2 and can choose the right one for your application.

Encryption and decryption methods - necessarily along with a deep understanding of public and private key concepts. 

DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) - a technology that allows data to be stored in multiple, distributed nodes rather than in a single location. The developer should be able to identify and explain its use cases in different Blockchain. 

Consensus- defines how new data is added to the blockchain (each node in the network must "agree" to add new information). A blockchain developer should distinguish between consensus methods such as PoS (Proof of Stake) and PoW (Proof of Work).

Tokenization - Tokenization is the process of converting both physical and non-physical assets into digital tokens using Blockchain technology. Every Blockchain developer should be able to create tokens and distinguish their basic types such as Utility, Security or NFT tokens. You can read more about them in our article: New token types – everything you need to know about them.

Dapps - decentralized, peer-to-peer applications.

Smart contracts - this is a self-enforcing contract in which the terms agreed between the parties are written directly into the lines of code. Smart contracts are the backbone of decentralized applications, where they allow for the abandonment of intermediaries. 

Various Blockchain Protocols - Currently, the most popular are Ethereum, Hyper Ledger Fabric and Corda. Blockchain projects mostly use one of these, so a Blockchain developer does not need to be proficient with all of them. On the other hand, his or her experience with them should certainly coincide with your needs. If you do not know which Blockchain protocol will work best for your project, our consultants can help you free of charge: contact@nextrope.com

Public and Private Blockchain - A blockchain developer should understand and be able to explain the differences between the two and justify their different business uses.

blockchain developer

Where to find a Blockchain developer

Online forums

Online platforms, forums, and groups on sites like Facebook, Reddit, and the IEEE Blockchain Community can also prove to be good places to look for Blockchain developers

Conferences

Nowadays, all such events have moved online, making it difficult but not impossible to find a blockchain developer at them. 

Schools

More and more universities are introducing courses focused on Blockchain. It is among their students and graduates that you will most easily find young people hungry for development and experience for the position of Blockchain programmer. 

Websites for freelancers

Among them, especially noteworthy are: CodementorXX-TeamToptal, BountyOne and Stack Overflow.

How to hire a Blockchain developer with Nextrope

We are a Polish software house providing Blockchain outsourcing services. We approach each project with great attention to detail and personal commitment. Among our clients there are revolutionary startups from financial and legal sector as well as one of the biggest banks in Poland - Alior Bank. You can read more about our success here. 

After years of work, we simply know the basics of fantastic projects. Want to find out why Nextrope - make an appointment for a free consultation: contact@nextrope.com

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Aethir Tokenomics – Case Study

Kajetan Olas

22 Nov 2024
Aethir Tokenomics – Case Study

Authors of the contents are not affiliated to the reviewed project in any way and none of the information presented should be taken as financial advice.

In this article we analyze tokenomics of Aethir - a project providing on-demand cloud compute resources for the AI, Gaming, and virtualized compute sectors.
Aethir aims to aggregate enterprise-grade GPUs from multiple providers into a DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). Its competitive edge comes from utlizing the GPUs for very specific use-cases, such as low-latency rendering for online games.
Due to decentralized nature of its infrastructure Aethir can meet the demands of online-gaming in any region. This is especially important for some gamer-abundant regions in Asia with underdeveloped cloud infrastructure that causes high latency ("lags").
We will analyze Aethir's tokenomics, give our opinion on what was done well, and provide specific recommendations on how to improve it.

Evaluation Summary

Aethir Tokenomics Structure

The total supply of ATH tokens is capped at 42 billion ATH. This fixed cap provides a predictable supply environment, and the complete emissions schedule is listed here. As of November 2024 there are approximately 5.2 Billion ATH in circulation. In a year from now (November 2025), the circulating supply will almost triple, and will amount to approximately 15 Billion ATH. By November 2028, today's circulating supply will be diluted by around 86%.

From an investor standpoint the rational decision would be to stake their tokens and hope for rewards that will balance the inflation. Currently the estimated APR for 3-year staking is 195% and for 4-year staking APR is 261%. The rewards are paid out weekly. Furthermore, stakers can expect to get additional rewards from partnered AI projects.

Staking Incentives

Rewards are calculated based on the staking duration and staked amount. These factors are equally important and they linearly influence weekly rewards. This means that someone who stakes 100 ATH for 2 weeks will have the same weekly rewards as someone who stakes 200 ATH for 1 week. This mechanism greatly emphasizes long-term holding. That's because holding a token makes sense only if you go for long-term staking. E.g. a whale staking $200k with 1 week lockup. will have the same weekly rewards as person staking $1k with 4 year lockup. Furthermore the ATH staking rewards are fixed and divided among stakers. Therefore Increase of user base is likely to come with decrease in rewards.
We believe the main weak-point of Aethirs staking is the lack of equivalency between rewards paid out to the users and value generated for the protocol as a result of staking.

Token Distribution

The token distribution of $ATH is well designed and comes with long vesting time-frames. 18-month cliff and 36-moths subsequent linear vesting is applied to team's allocation. This is higher than industry standard and is a sign of long-term commitment.

  • Checkers and Compute Providers: 50%
  • Ecosystem: 15%
  • Team: 12.5%
  • Investors: 11.5%
  • Airdrop: 6%
  • Advisors: 5%

Aethir's airdrop is divided into 3 phases to ensure that only loyal users get rewarded. This mechanism is very-well thought and we rate it highly. It fosters high community engagement within the first months of the project and sets the ground for potentially giving more-control to the DAO.

Governance and Community-Led Development

Aethir’s governance model promotes community-led decision-making in a very practical way. Instead of rushing with creation of a DAO for PR and marketing purposes Aethir is trying to make it the right way. They support projects building on their infrastructure and regularly share updates with their community in the most professional manner.

We believe Aethir would benefit from implementing reputation boosted voting. An example of such system is described here. The core assumption is to abandon the simplistic: 1 token = 1 vote and go towards: Votes = tokens * reputation_based_multiplication_factor.

In the attached example, reputation_based_multiplication_factor rises exponentially with the number of standard deviations above norm, with regard to user's rating. For compute compute providers at Aethir, user's rating could be replaced by provider's uptime.

Perspectives for the future

While it's important to analyze aspects such as supply-side tokenomics, or governance, we must keep in mind that 95% of project's success depends on demand-side. In this regard the outlook for Aethir may be very bright. The project declares $36M annual reccuring revenue. Revenue like this is very rare in the web3 space. Many projects are not able to generate any revenue after succesfull ICO event, due to lack fo product-market-fit.

If you're looking to create a robust tokenomics model and go through institutional-grade testing please reach out to contact@nextrope.com. Our team is ready to help you with the token engineering process and ensure your project’s resilience in the long term.

Nextrope Partners with Hacken to Enhance Blockchain Security

Miłosz

21 Nov 2024
Nextrope Partners with Hacken to Enhance Blockchain Security

Nextrope announces a strategic partnership with Hacken, a renowned blockchain security auditor. It marks a significant step in delivering reliable decentralized solutions. After several successful collaborations resulting in flawless smart contract audits, the alliance solidifies the synergy between Nextrope's innovative blockchain development and Hacken's top-tier security auditing services. Together, we aim to set new benchmarks, ensuring that security is an integral part of blockchain technology.

Strengthening Blockchain Security

The partnership aims to fortify the security protocols within blockchain ecosystems. By integrating Hacken's comprehensive security audits with Nextrope's cutting-edge blockchain solutions, we are poised to offer unparalleled security features in our projects.

"Blockchain security should never be an afterthought"

"Our partnership with Hacken underscores our dedication to embedding security at the core of our blockchain solutions. Together, we're building a safer future for the industry."

said Mateusz Mach, CEO of Nextrope

About Nextrope

Nextrope is a forward-thinking blockchain development house specializing in creating innovative solutions for businesses worldwide. With a team of experienced developers and blockchain experts, Nextrope delivers high-quality, scalable, and secure blockchain applications tailored to meet the unique needs of each client.

About Hacken

Hacken is a leading blockchain security auditor known for its rigorous smart contract audits and security assessments. With a mission to make the industry safer, Hacken provides complex security services that help companies identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in their applications.

Looking Ahead

As a joint mission, both Nextrope and Hacken are committed to continuous innovation. We look forward to the exciting opportunities this partnership will bring and are eager to implement a more secure blockchain environment for all.

For more information, please contact:

Nextrope

Hacken

Join us on our journey to deliver top-notch blockchain tech and a safer future for the industry!