Freelancing website Upwork has released its new quarterly skills index
Freelancing website Upwork has released its new quarterly skills index which revealed blockchain was the skill that’s grown the fastest in the US over the second quarter of 2018. It has triumphed over around 5000 skills in terms of growth. Besides, Google’s programming language Go has been listed at the head of the top 20 list. Blockchain industry’s success in the skill growth list was seen in Q1 as well, indicating blockchain’s rising popularity. Upwork wrote that its year-over-year growth has been more than 3500% in the second quarter and it has seen over 2000% growth in the last four quarters, year-over-year.
Presently, blockchain-related professions listed on Upwork include developers in different languages and frameworks as well as distributed system engineers. In addition, programmers well-versed with C++ are also in demand since the language lies at the core of coding Bitcoin core, a common client of bitcoin’s. Writers for white papers and managers of telegram community are also sought after.
The Skills Index comes at a time of bullish growth of the blockchain sector. Recently, KPMG, an accounting firm, had also noted the rising interest to invest in blockchain startups vis-a-vis last year. That report too revealed how US investors were more proactive than their counterparts elsewhere.
Over the first and second quarters of this year, blockchain has been a major draw for investors but they have usually focused on mature companies and firms open to fresh rounds of funding rather than new additions to the market such as start-ups. The big-four accounting firm commented that the US had been rather enthusiastic about blockchain, with 2018 investments till then having already exceeded the 2017 total.
The KPMG report made it clear to all observers that first of 2018 had seen more investment in blockchain than the whole of 2017. We can safely conclude that as the sector continues on its upward swing, the increasing demand for blockchain-related skills will continue uninterrupted, and also allow for more and more investment to flow in, which would only boost the skills market. According to IHS Markit, a data analytics company, blockchain business can be expected to grow from $2.5 billion in 2017 to $2 trillion in 2030 in terms of overall valuation. Clearly, the times are sunny and bright for the blockchain industry owing to its increasing viability across sectors and industries.