Blockchain technology witnesses highest demand from US and India

Even though challenges and doubts exist around blockchain technology’s reliability, speed, security and scalability, it is still a hugely popular skill with the highest demand coming from the US and India, according to Don Tapscott, co-founder of the Toronto-based think-tank Blockchain Research Institute.

Research firm Gartner expects the market opportunity for blockchain to exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030, while a 2015 World Economic Forum report predicted that by 2025, 10 per cent of GDP will be stored on blockchains or blockchain-related technology.

Blockchain is a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared.

The demand for blockchain talent is set to grow with time, given that all industries — from banks to agriculture — are looking at adopting the technology. Some of this demand is being fulfilled by online learning platforms like Coursera. 

“We have six standalone blockchain courses on our platform, helping learners advance their careers. In the past few years, we have witnessed a surge in learners registering for blockchain courses on our platform. The six blockchain courses on the Coursera platform together have seen a 53 per cent (demand) growth in the last 12 months," said Dil Sidhu, chief content officer at Coursera. 

The US and India are leaders in the number of blockchain developers in the world. “However, there is still a huge shortage of blockchain talent in both these countries due to the sheer demand,” said Tapscott. According to a recent report by industry body Nasscom and Avasant on the potential of blockchain, service providers in India, with their deep enterprise client relationships, are uniquely positioned to address a large share of the global blockchain demand. 

The study also found that service providers are currently addressing only 2 per cent of the global blockchain demand and “will need to invest rapidly in talent development, IP, asset creation and process framework advancement to maximise the opportunity.”

In India, a report by recruiting firm TeamLease found that only 5,000 (0.25 per cent) of the 2 million software developers currently have the right blockchain skills.

The Nasscom Avasant report also said that globally, over 50 per cent of blockchain projects are being driven by start-ups. Over 14 states in India have already initiated pilots and production projects covering over 40 blockchain use cases. The top three public sector use cases for blockchain include land registry, digital certificates and farm insurance, it added. However, in spite of the promise and claims of being virtually unhackable, there have instances in the past couple of years where hackers have been able to attack a part of the blockchain and steal significant amounts of virtual currencies. Blockchain came to the spotlight for being the technology underlying the virtual currency bitcoin. One bitcoin is worth Rs 3.94 lakh.

“Considering that blockchain is deeply associated with bitcoin, there remains a lot of confusion around what it really is and its potential. We believe that it’s important for professionals to understand the principles of blockchain in order to be better prepared for the blockchain revolution. Many are unable to place trust in blockchain due to lack of regulators and standardisation. Challenges and doubts also exist around blockchain’s reliability, speed, security, and scalability,” said Tapscott. Globally, big businesses are experimenting with blockchain. They include banks like JP Morgan Chase and HSBC; technology companies such as Oracle and Facebook; and e-commerce giants Amazon and Alibaba. 

“Apart from freshers and mid-senior level employees, we are also seeing a growing demand for blockchain courses by senior executives in order to better understand the technology’s implications on businesses,” said Sidhu.

Preparing for the future

• India has seen over 3,100 start-ups emerge in blockchain technology since 2009
• Over 25 countries have a policy framework supporting fintech and blockchain start-ups and technology
• BFSI, health care, retail and manufacturing are key Indian sectors that can benefit from blockchain
• Most Indian IT services providers are looking to shore up blockchain talent to better serve customers