Today, the implementation and development of blockchain technology is complex and expensive. However, this is justified in view of the technological advantages offered by the blockchain.
Every person somehow related to the blockchain needs to know what lies at its core, what it is based on.
Programming languages such as C / C++ are very important for blockchain developers because the lion’s share of projects are written with its help. Some blockchain projects are written in Java, although an experienced team of experts can create chains of transaction blocks in any programming language.
Today blockchain industry is quite a young industry, it is difficult to find a good developer, because you can create a team of freelancers (if you need a comprehensive solution) or hire a professional blockchain team. This is what we are going to do today. We will understand what you need to pay attention to when choosing a contractor, find the pros and cons of freelancers, as well as the advantages of professional companies.
First of all, you need to understand what type of blockchain technology developers you are looking for because the phrase “I’m looking for a developer of blockchain technologies” is the same as saying “I’m looking for an Internet developer”.
Be as confident as you can in the next question:
Do you need a blockchain platform from scratch or creating an easy solution? If you need a blockchain platform from scratch, obviously, you need an experienced team of blockchain technology developers, since they are mostly chosen to provide comprehensive solutions. If you need to create an easy solution, choose the right freelancer, as this will save your money and time. Also think about the type of blockchain technology in your business you need: public, private or a consortium? This also plays an important role.
You need to know what you are looking for
Consider the various aspects of your company, as well as the type of blockchain project you need. Be sure to answer the following questions:
1. Are you a startup or a large corporation?
2. What kind of activity has your company?
3. Is it necessary for a developer to become part of your organization when creating blockchain technology?
There are many factors that influence which developer is best for you, for example, the type of project, its duration, the number of people you need to connect to it, regardless of whether you need experts in this field or just enthusiasts whose skills you can develop.
It may be even better to transfer the project into the hands of a specialized development company that professionally develops blockchain technologies. Outsourcing to Ukraine and any other country can ease your work pressure and allow your company to focus more on delivering its core services.
Experienced blockchain developers are very different from the rest of the workforce, even those in the IT sector. This is due to the fact that the blockchain technology was originally the interest of outsiders and enthusiasts, which has just started to have a real commercial impact on the IT sector in the last couple of years.
It is necessary to understand that it is precisely the early fans of bitcoin and blockchain technologies that are today united into professional companies. These people were united by a common vision of the future; they focused on decentralization and cryptography instead of traditional financial means. Because of this, in large parts of the blockchain community, there are strong ideological forces that often fall into the sphere of libertarianism and anarchism.
Companies that attract developers should respect these ideologies if they want to attract the best specialists for their needs. They also need to understand that this allows some projects to start the start much faster. A cryptoanarchist may be much more interested in a project whose goal is to improve democracy in the developing world than in a project whose goal is to reduce costs in the banking sector.
The blockchain community is a broad “country” with conservatives and techno-capitalists. There are many excellent blockchain developers who are considering technology exclusively for the sake of their utility, which is why they have developed their skills to make money or help to promote technology to the masses.
If you want to find a good developer, you need to look for them in your natural habitat. Due to the decentralized nature of the blockchain development, many of the developers have many of their projects and are not looking for a new job. This does not mean that they will not be interested in your organization if they receive an excellent offer from you.
Freelance developer or professional blockchain development company?
Freelancers
You must understand that freelance developers are not suitable for complex solutions based on blockchain technology. Their tasks are to perform easy tasks and short-term projects. Naturally, you can integrate several freelancers for one project, but this option is ineffective. For example, the guy from Berlin is engaged in EVM, the guy from Tokyo in SaaS, the guy from New York in IoT. If you want to hire them for a long-term project, you will create many problems for yourself.
But the key issue here is still the problem of issue between price and quality. Let us see what the pros and cons of the creation or implementation of blockchain technology from private freelancers and the development of blockchain technology together with a professional team.
Like other software developers, developers of blockchain technology can be found on different freelance platforms. Upwork.com and Toptal are the most popular platforms with a large number of blockchain freelancers. This is where you can find and hire a developer of blockchain technologies for your project.
Although they are easy to find and hire, freelance developers create additional problems for blockchain business owners. For example, managing freelancers can be difficult if you do not have enough experience. In addition, hiring a blockchain developer on a freelance basis makes sense only if you have a short-term project. And now about the pros and cons.
Positive sides:
1. Work from any corner of the Earth. Your freelancer can work from any corner of the Earth, at any time. He does not need to come to the office, everything that you need he will perform from his home.
2. Salary. No fixed salary for freelancers. How much work he will do so much you pay him. Therefore, the amount of money spent on the freelance developer may vary every month.
3. Lack of social packages. Usually, between you and the freelancer, there are no obligations in the form of a voluntary health insurance policy, there are no hospital and pension benefits. That is, you are not obliged to pay the freelancer money if it does not work due to poor health.
4. Relationship. Usually, there is a friendly, respectful distance between freelancers and the customer. Both sides do not want to go into conflict.
Negative sides:
1.Experience. It is very difficult to know how experienced the person you are going to hire. It’s hard to know the truth, for example, how many orders he has completed, whether he has experience, for example, in SaaS or IoT.
2. Responsibility. You cannot control the freelancer. Since he has a free lifestyle, he can forget about ordering or choose entertainment instead of work. Irresponsible freelancers cannot finish the task before the deadlines. Late finishing of order slows down the work.
3. Unreliability. You need to understand that the freelancer does not bind you anything, he can throw your order at half the work, your competitors can lure him, offering a large salary, he can refuse your order altogether without telling you about it, and this can slow down your ideas.
4. The absence of formal agreements. Informal, verbal agreements sometimes entail unpleasant situations, for example, when a freelancer requires more money for his work than was determined before doing work.
As a rule, freelancers ask for their services to create blockchain technologyless than professional companies, since they are not burdened with having to maintain an office and pay taxes. But the guarantees of high-quality creation of the blockchain are less, because not every freelancer, unlike a company, will enter into a full-fledged agreement with the customer for the development of blockchain technology.
In this case, much is based on how the freelancer works – officially, as an individual, signing civil contracts for developing blockchain tasks, or under a personal entrepreneur agreement without employees, either informally, without setting a contractor, as an extreme option, via remote work exchanges (freelance exchanges). In the first variant, the customer will have to pay various fees and personal income tax for the freelancer, and in the latter variant – to be prepared for the fact that the technical solution may not be completed on time or executed in an inappropriate manner. In this case, you need to understand that compensation for the loss of time and lost financial profits you will not return to yourself, the maximum that you will receive is to withdraw or not pay money for the quality of the site that does not correspond to the oral agreement (most often).
We all know that a person cannot be a professional in everything, even if we take only a narrowly focused industry. That is why freelancers are best suited to perform light, not time-consuming tasks.
Therefore, if you decided to hire a freelancer, first of all, you need to evaluate his knowledge and skills in the area of activity in which he will work, and also study his portfolio, evaluate how complex projects he has done and how many orders he has.
Professional company
A professional blockchain development company gives more guarantees for the successful development of your idea. Naturally, professional companies specialize in complex solutions that require more, but the quality of such work is better than that of freelancers.
A company specializing in the blockchain is an organization that combines mainly professional guys, each of whom is a master in his field. That means, one guy will work with SaaS, another with IoT, the third with EVM, and so on, and all of these people will be under one boss. Working with the company guarantees you maximum attention to the project, it will be worked out in as much detail as possible, all the flaws will be corrected.
Unlike freelancer services, after starting a blockchain-based site, for example, it must be serviced by someone, companies usually provide such services.
One of the main advantages of choosing a professional company is the provision of guarantees. The company contractor will always give you legal guarantees of his work, will take over the entire internal coordination of the staff involved in the phased creation of the site.
When choosing a developer company, particular attention should be paid to:
1. Portfolio. The number and complexity of orders that the company has completed.
2. Professionalism. The team should be as trained as possible. Team members must show excellence.
3. Pricing policy. If the company provides a flexible pricing policy, it can change the composition of the team, thereby reducing costs.
When you hire a contractor company, you must show that you understand in the blockchain, that you understand how complex the problems that arise, for example, when implementing the blockchain. Here are some of the most common obstacles that developers face in order fulfillment.
Complexity
The blockchain technology is full of completely new vocabulary for developers, has a huge space to improve and find different solutions to the most difficult modern problems. Not all of its potentials are revealed. Creating a complete blockchain of ideas requires knowledge in many nuances of the blockchain.
Integration with outdated applications
The practicality of implementing decentralized cryptosystems goes beyond the traditional set of IT skills. It requires a lot of time and nerves to fully implement the blockchain in outdated systems.
Scalability
Since the blockchain is a “decentralized environment”, each component of the network must process each transaction, this is due to scalability. The greater the scalability the faster the transaction.
Companies consisting of excellent professionals and newcomers
Do you know the difference between a good software company and “excellent”? You need to know how to recognize a company consisting of excellent blockchain developers and a company that consists of non-core developers who have learned some coding skills of a blockchain.
In general, excellent blockchain developers have the following characteristics:
First, they have strong ideological beliefs focused on decentralization. Some go so far as to proudly identify themselves as crypto-anarchists, and many of them have strong ideological beliefs about implementing decentralization everywhere, from corporations to governments and whole societies.
Secondly, they have a deep fundamental understanding and mastery of the blockchain theory and economic principles. These insights and experiences applied to any decentralized technology are the structural basis on which most of the key breakthroughs in blockchain technologies fall.
They have a real passion for technology – this is what they were striving for, what they were looking for and finding out, that is, they were engaged in self-development in the blockchain field. Many of them are doctors of philosophy. Most of them are deeply rooted in the world of cryptography.
They are very curious personalities, they are ready for any technical problems. They are really worried about unsolved problems. When faced with obstacles, they are convinced that they can find many solutions for any set of problems. Tobebetterthanothers, that’s their goal.
