The Web3 Movement & It’s Impact on Software Talent
Crypto and NFT based companies are stealing the top software talent from big tech companies, promising developers the chance to work on “the next big thing”. But what is Web3 and why is it so enticing to tech and digital talent?
What is Web3 or Web 3.0?
Web3 is an idea that is generating a lot of excitement across many tech and digital communities, but what is it?
Web3 is a new era of the internet that hosts decentralized apps running on blockchain technology, whilst advocating for more user privacy and ownership of data. It’s the third ‘wave’ of internet technologies, following the world wide web (webpages) and social media (user generated content). Whilst nobody knows exactly what Web3 might look like in full yet, it will likely be rooted in concepts around being decentralised, permissionless, autonomously managed via artificial intelligence (AI), and built on blockchain technology.
This idea of overhauling the internet as we know it and building something new and innovative is attracting some of the brightest minds in tech, even tempting longer term Amazon, Google, and Facebook employees to move to smaller businesses who are looking to move into Web3.
Web3: What Developers Need to Know
Whilst Web3 isn’t yet fully defined, it’s undeniably a fast-growing area of development. So, what do Developers need to learn and how do traditional tech stacks fit into Web3?
Most describe the Web3 tech stack as:
- Blockchain
- Blockchain development environment
- File storage
- P2P Databases
- API (indexing and querying)
- Identity
- Client (framework and libraries)
- Other protocols
These are largely different to traditional web architecture and is significantly less mature at this stage. One of the few parts were there is little change is the frontend. There isn’t a lot of difference in the frontend tech, other than actual HTTP client libraries. There is still a heavy reliance on Javascript, and in particular, React.
Digging deeper into the more complex aspects, Developers will need to learn and understand Ethereum. By now, most developers are familiar with the concept of a blockchain as a distributed ledger of data, but there are many different types of blockchains. The two most well-known are Bitcoin and Ethereum. Ethereum, unlike Bitcoin, is highly programmable, making it a go-to choice for developers. You may have heard that Solidity, a programming language for the Ethereum blockchain, somewhat resembles JavaScript. While that’s true, Solidity is only used to write “smart contracts” for blockchains — putting data on a blockchain, along with any instructions for that data.
Learning Solidity and the EVM (or Ethereum Virtual Machine) might be the best bet when getting started as a blockchain developer.
Storing data is one of the trickiest aspect of Web3 development, because whilst blockchains are great in many aspects, they are ineffective at storing large amounts of data, which is where file storage protocols like IPFS, Arweave and Filecoin come in. Having exposure to tooling like this will put you in good stead to move into Web3.
Why Are People Moving into Web3?
Three of the biggest talent drivers that are spurring software developers into moving roles right now, include:
- Challenge / Type of Projects
- Technology or Tech Stack
- Salary
Web3 hits all three of these points. As a completely new concept and something that, even now, isn’t fully defined, Web3 offers developers and software engineers a chance to become a part of something new, exciting, and challenging. They will be facing problems and challenges that nobody has faced before and will play an active role in overcoming these through creative problem solving and collaboration, to build something ground-breaking.
Similarly, this technology is something new, and gives developers a chance to upskill and add a new type of technology to their repertoire. When you combine this with an often-lucrative salary, with some of the bigger names such as Coinbase offering a median base salary for a software engineer of $185,000 a year, plus cash bonuses and stock-based compensation. Whilst smaller Web3 start-ups may not be able to offer that level of base salary, they are often in a place to offer other key benefits within their employment packages (such as stock options, flexibility, healthcare, travel schemes, enhanced holiday allowance).
Looking for your next Software Development Challenge?
It’ll be interesting to see if Web3 lives up to its massive hype, but one thing is for certain, software developers will continue to be high in demand and low in supply. That’s where I can help.
Maxwell Bond have officially and exclusively partnered with KnownOrigin, Manchester’s first NFT marketplace who are investing in Web3, as well as a multitude of other innovative tech and digital start-ups in the North-West.
If you’re looking for your next challenge in software development, please get in touch for more information about our current roles or head over to our website to view live vacancies.
Alternatively, if you’re looking to source top tech talent to drive your projects forward, reach out for a confidential, no-obligation chat about our talent solutions and resources.
