Developers skilled in blockchain technology are in short supply globally: study

A new study conducted by Financial Express reports that the blockchain industry is growing rapidly and is facing a lack of access to new talent to meet the needs of the growing ecosystem.

The report pegs the growth rate at an impressive 45% every year, and at current levels, the existing talent pool may not be able to sustain the increase in demand. The study focused on India, a country leading the pack in digital asset adoption in Asia with a thriving local industry.

“Blockchain solutions are increasingly being used in banking, finance, insurance, pharma, agriculture, e-governance and healthcare sectors,” noted Neelu Jyothi Ahuja, professor at UPES School of Computer Science. In India, private and public institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), use blockchain technology for the digital rupee and record securities transactions.

According to the report, India has only 5,000 software engineers with the necessary skills to pursue a career in distributed ledger technology (DLT) out of the two million software engineers in the country. To cater to the growing industry, Ahuja points out that educational institutions have started offering a variety of courses in the industry.

In his recent lecture in Kanpur, nChain Chief Scientist Dr. Craig Wright says he wants to increase the level of knowledge about Bitcoin. “I want them to understand what Bitcoin can really do and how they can build on that, how they are viable solutions that they can create, not that we will give them, but they can actually own,” Wright tells CoinGeek.

Meanwhile, UPES offers a four-year bachelor’s program in DLT in collaboration with IBM, while Alliance University and Milestone Institute of Allied Health Sciences offer a B. Tech in the subject. Apart from learning institutions that offer the course, several civil service organizations have started to train those interested in short-term courses with certificates given at the end of the courses.

DLT education is increasing to meet growing demand

Around the world, DLT courses have been offered by leading educational institutions to add depth to the talent pool. Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge and leading universities in China and Hong Kong now offer courses in DLT.

India’s situation is unique due to the size of the virtual asset industry, which currently employs 75,000 people, representing 11% of the global workforce in the industry. The local ecosystem has 450 Web3 startups, four of which have achieved unicorn status.

“It is encouraging to see that industry and government stakeholders in India are taking a very pragmatic approach to blockchain technology, with use cases being explored in areas ranging from health and safety, finance, enterprise technology and land registry to education,” said a report by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM).

Watch: Dr. Craig Wright Lecture at IIT Kanpur – With Bitcoin and IPv6, P2P Exchange Enables an Internet of Everything

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