These are interesting times we live in. This can, of course, be a good thing (exciting new opportunities) or bad (an euphemism for hard choices and impossible problems), but at least on the technology front, I believe more in the first than the latter.
There are just too many compelling technologies coming down the pipeline and the future is brimming with prospects of revolutions. We have to tame some dangers, like a runaway super-artificial intelligence, or disruption to the ways we are used to do some things, like electronic trade, financial investment, or exchange of goods. We should not dismiss them, they are real and will cause conflicts between people in different professions, or classes. But we have managed similar changes in the past (well, perhaps not in the case of AI) and we can hopefully keep doing that.
Visions of the Future
Michio Kaku has written a book with his vision of a 100 years into the future, that unveils some really crucial developments in all the fronts of technology, from bio-engineering to virtual reality. I like to read such books in order to be inspired with all the things that may be coming and I barely even think about. It also comforts me a little that at least someone is thinking of the problems, but for the most part, I read this book as a window into the wonders of possibility. And Kaku is very good at that. However, writing in 2012, he failed to predict the coming of Blockchain or to acknowledge Bitcoin.
This is today one of the most heralded technologies to bring about that change to our lives, and I for one am thrilled to work in this field. Part of that is because there are still so many challenges to be solved: we need more people and I guess it falls to those like me to wave the flag and promote the opportunities.
Careers in Blockchain
There are a number of different areas in blockchain, and you can find work in any of them. It is not all about writing smart contracts, or designing new tokens and on-chain protocols. There is a lot more in the environment that needs to be done, from designing token wallets, dApps with real use cases, or a strong back-end to process the data to be kept on-chain, and relate it to that kept in more traditional storage. In many cases, if you’re a developer, your skills are transferable, so why not look for such a new opportunity?
I could go into details of the skills I think you’d need of the kind of work you might end up doing, but I have already done that in a guest post I wrote for Simple Programmer. Simple Programmer is a big and successful blog for programmers in general with a focus on career management and soft skills. It has a different interest than the Coder’s Errand, but I am happy to collaborate with them to improve community awareness for the causes I believe in. So I suggest you go there and check my post.
We’re Hiring!
Have you ever considered working in this area? What stops you? Do you think it has a future, or is it a fad that will die? Let me know what you think, write your thoughts below and let’s start a conversation.
Oh, and by the way, if you’re still considering it, Artos is looking for back-end engineers. If you have a good Scala background, or a strong programming background in other paradigms, are pro-active and have an interesting in new technologies, we would like to talk. Artos covers a varied spectrum, including back-end, and front-end development, writing smart contracts, and investigating several emerging technologies, including Layer-2 solutions and Zero Knowledge Proofs. It’s all exciting work. If this piques your interest, let me know.