Who is the Blockchain Employee? Exploring Skills in Demand using Observations from the Australian Labour Market and Behavioural Institutional Cryptoeconomics

Abstract

LinkedIn recently predicted that blockchain skills will be the most in-demand skill in 2020, and in 2018 blockchain led the list of the fastest growing skills in demand according to Upwork. But what exactly constitutes the skill set of a blockchain employee? We use Australian labour market data to explore what skills are in demand among the blockchain workforce. We also take a deeper dive and explore what educational qualifications and experience are required of blockchain employees, and how blockchain-related jobs perform on salary scales. We discover that alongside ‘hard’ software engineering skills such as programming languages or computer science, blockchain-related jobs require candidates to have ‘soft’ skills such as creativity, communication and leadership. To explain this, we use institutional cryptoeconomics, applied game theory and applied behavioural science to suggest that the skills demand may be understood as a function of challenges to blockchain adoption. We suggest that for blockchain to enter a mass adoption phase, the industry will need employees with an integrated skill set of both hard software engineering skills and soft behavioural or enterprise skills. Furthermore, blockchain leaders, community leaders and end users will need to gain ‘blockchain literacy’ to overcome the challenge of coordinating expectations by developers and users, who will create network externalities and facilitate rapid, coordinated adoption. We contribute to the evidence-based blockchain literature by using Australian labour market data to derive insight into the challenges posed to the adoption of blockchain as (and if) it climbs out of the current ‘trough of disillusionment’.