Why do people want to work in crypto?
While some users fear bitcoin will fall to $100 and altcoins will lose value, crypto startups are raising more funds from institutional and private investors: Compute North, a large data center provider, for example, has raised $385 in investment to grow its business in the United States. Here are a few reasons why people want to work in the crypto economy, and you should too.
Cryptocurrencies have turned mainstream
Whether you want to admit it or not, they have. The founder of the famous auto company, Henry Ford, was considered crazy; the ideas of the Wright brothers and Nikola Tesla were also met not only with skepticism, but with apprehension. Few believed in the success of Elon Musk and the fact that he would ever go to conquer the expanses of space.
However, Elon Musk the entrepreneur not only managed to create a successful and prosperous SpaceX company, which conducted the first commercial flight into space, but also the richest man in the world, whose fortune, in terms of capital, surpassed that of John D. Rockefeller. In addition, SpaceX has successfully tested the world’s largest Starship spacecraft with a height of 120 meters and a capacity of more than 100 people for a flight to Mars and is preparing for new tests.
Although Bitcoin has already surpassed some major companies in terms of capitalization and entered the top ten behind only Apple, Alphabet (Google), Saudi Aramco, Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, many users remain wary due to the uncertainty of the legal regulation of the digital asset industry and a number of other reasons. Even now, some of them believe that cryptocurrencies are a financial bubble, pyramid scheme or scam.
However, if we abstract from the mass prejudices “rehashed” by skeptics and opponents of the crypto industry, the picture becomes clearer: more and more companies are ready to join and develop blockchain-based services. These companies include Amazon, Facebook (aka Meta), Twitter, major investment banks and funds, and more.
El Salvador has already recognized cryptocurrencies as legal tender, the government has even invested about $85.5 million in the main cryptocurrency, and China, paradoxically banning any transactions with digital assets, has launched its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) and has already tested the digital yuan (e-CNY) at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022. By the way, the number of transactions made by users with e-CNY has surpassed the number of transactions with the Visa payment system.
Of course, it will take time, but eventually cryptocurrencies will be widely used around the world: probably in the near future you will be able to buy products with Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, as well as pay for services in the same way as with your usual currency. In an interview with Bloomberg, Dara Khosrowshahi, the founder of taxi service UBER, said:
“Uber Will ‘Absolutely’ Accept Cryptos in the Future.”
High potential
At the time of writing, the crypto market’s capitalization is $1.9 trillion. According to the World Federation of Exchanges, the capitalization of the stock market is about $109 trillion: 57.3 times greater than the cryptocurrency market. This indicates that the crypto market is still growing and growing.
Consider the crypto exchange Binance, which was barely known in 2017, with tokens trading at less than $1. Binance is now #1 in terms of trading volume, beating major players like Coinbase, Huobi, and Bitfinex. Moreover, the gap between Binance and Coinbase is impressive: in terms of trading volume, the Chinese giant outperforms the American platform by more than five times.
In 2017, when the Binance Coin Token (now a coin) first appeared on exchanges, its price was $0.11. Now the cryptocurrency’s price is over $400 and in terms of capitalization, BNB ranks 4th, trailing only behind Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT). What is the secret to Binance’s success? When the protracted “crypto winter” hit in 2018, many companies stopped engaging with cryptocurrencies and governments stopped regulating them, thinking the hype was over and cryptocurrencies were no longer of interest to businesses.
As a result, some companies had to go out of business, and the rest did not try to evolve, but worked with “what is”. But Binance’s leadership recognized the true prospects of cryptocurrencies and, instead of throwing up their hands, made even more efforts to develop the ecosystem.
As a result, the company has created services that have no analogues on the market: Launchpad, Savings, Mining Pools, Dual Investments, Staking and many other crypto projects. In addition, Binance developers have released their own network similar to Ethereum, but based on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) – Binance Smart Chain (BSC), providing customers with access to decentralized DeFi services, among other things. In addition, Binance became the first platform to launch its own NFT marketplace.
The company’s innovative approach and vision have driven the company’s incredible growth, and other platforms like Huobi, OKEx (now OKX) and Bybit are only following in the footsteps of the leader and are not able to offer anything new. No exchange in the world can match the number of currency/cryptocurrency pairs traded or financial services offered. Cryptocurrencies are approaching mainstream acceptance, and crypto exchange Binance has confidently carved out a niche for itself even before digital assets became mainstream. It’s still ahead.
Removal of geographical restrictions
For example, if you live in Brazil and want to work for a company based in Austria, there will probably be difficulties with wages: you will not be able to get paid in Euros for your work, but the company can pay you in Brazilian reals. Of course, the currencies are convertible, but imagine how much money you will need to pay the commissions for trading and bank transfers.
Promising Professions
When Internet technologies were just developing, the demand for IT specialists was low because it was difficult to reliably assess the prospects of a new industry. Accordingly, the number of people working in this industry was not high. But as the industry developed, so did the demand for relevant professions. Now the number of software developers around the world is about 27 million, and even so, these professions remain in high demand.
The same is happening in the blockchain industry. Companies from the traditional financial sector, such as Amazon and Twitter, are increasingly looking for personnel and attracting investments to develop and enhance their own decentralized platforms.
Participation in crypto projects
Not all companies want to cooperate with the crypto business and thus miss potential opportunities to attract investments. You can change this situation by inviting your management to take a new direction or by opening your own crypto business. Of course, on the one hand, you risk losing short-term profits, but on the other hand, you give away incredible long-term prospects if you ignore the potential of the crypto industry. The question remains, what is your priority?
If you still have doubts, re-read the paragraphs about the history of Binance and Elon Musk, both of whom became leaders in their field, and then think again. If that has no effect, repeat it several times until you have an insight that can completely turn around your idea of the direction you want to go.
Removing Restrictions
According to a 2018 World Bank study, 1.7 billion adults worldwide are unable to access banking services. This severely limits the user experience. Crypto projects remove these limitations completely because you do not need to open accounts with banks and other financial organizations to use digital assets for payments, transfers, exchanges, and everything else.
All you need is a crypto wallet. When you use programs or devices to store and perform transactions with cryptocurrencies, only you have access to your funds: no one can use your assets and restrict your actions with them. Only you have full control over the assets stored in your crypto wallet. At the same time, your privacy is preserved and you do not have to worry that the company where you keep your savings will go bankrupt and will not be able to compensate you.
Expansion (erasing) of boundaries
But when you get into crypto, you open up a whole new set of horizons. Crypto entrepreneurs have no limits: you can accept payments for your goods and services in almost any form: coins, tokens, stablecoins and even NFTs. For example, if you have your own art studio or work as an artist for such a company, non-fungible token marketplaces are an additional tool to promote your digital artworks.
NFT tokens have attracted a lot of attention, and despite the correction of cryptocurrencies at the beginning of 2022, the market for non-fungible tokens continues to grow. This market is estimated at $35 billion, and according to analysts, by 2025 it may exceed $80 billion.
Digital works like CryptoPunks or Crypto Unicorns, which cost almost nothing 4 years ago, are now being sold for millions of dollars. Perhaps some of your work will be highly valued a few years later, like an NFT from Unicorns. And the sooner you occupy this niche, the more return you can get from crypto investments.
An alternative to cash equivalents
If you live in a country with a high inflation rate – 10% or more per year – then we have bad news for you. Your savings will rapidly become cheaper given that you receive your salary in Dollars / Euros and other currencies.
But you can get paid for the work done, for example, in stablecoins: Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), TerraUSD (UST), Dai (DAI) and many others. Stablecoins are pegged to and/or backed by their respective fiat currencies. And on an exchange, you convert them into your currency in order to make purchases in stores until companies in your country begin to accept payments in digital assets. Isn’t that great?
Wait a minute though! But is the situation much better with other national currencies to which stablecoin rates are pegged? Let’s turn to statistics: according to the analytical service Statista, over the past hundred years, the purchasing power of the US dollar has decreased by 15 times.
<a href=”https://www.statista.com/statistics/1032048/value-us-dollar-since-1640/” rel=”nofollow”><img src=”https://www.statista.com /graphic/1/1032048/value-us-dollar-since-1640.jpg” alt=”Statistic: Purchasing power of one US dollar (USD) in every year from 1635 to 2020* | Statista” style=”width: 100 %; height: auto !important; max-width:1000px;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;”/></a><br />Find more statistics at <a href=”https://www.statista .com” rel=”nofollow”>Statista</a>
Researchgate did its own research and compared the purchasing power of the dollar and Bitcoin:
Source: Researchgate
Let us do the math. Let us say your average grocery basket is worth $20 (or its equivalent) or 20 BTC (for simplicity, let us round the cryptocurrency value to $1). In 2012, $1,000 could buy you 50 shopping baskets, but in 2020, you can only buy 43.5. The purchasing power of your money has decreased by 13%. But if you held Bitcoin, in 2020 you could buy not 50, but 500,000 grocery baskets – the purchasing power of blockchain investments has increased by 1,000,000%! And by February 2022 by 4,300,000%.
Volatility – best friend or worst enemy?
Many investors and entrepreneurs are dismissive of this type of work with impressive prospects paired with equally impressive risks, pointing to the wild price swings in cryptocurrencies that can lead to both big gains and big losses. But is the correction really that bad?
If you take a closer look at the picture, you will see that the correction is actually a positive rather than a negative phenomenon. Why? First, falling corrections provide an opportunity to take a break from a long bull market and “turn down the heat.”
Secondly, it is possible to accumulate crypto assets that have fallen in price and even increase their value in the end. Investors who followed a well-thought-out strategy – splitting positions during a correction and selling portions of assets during a bull market – have repeatedly grown their investment portfolios.
Try to estimate how much your portfolio would be worth today if you had invested in early 2017 and followed this strategy, e.g. buying and selling Bitcoin in increments of $1000, $2000,…, $5000? What if you added altcoins like ETH and BNB?
Where to find work in crypto projects?
The search algorithm will not be fundamentally different from how you search for a normal job. The only exception is that there are thematic forums, groups, channels and chats for searching promising jobs and startups in the crypto space.
Freelance Exchanges
You can still use traditional freelance exchanges to find promising jobs or post your resume: Fiverr, Upwork, Toptal, Freelancer.com or Flexjobs. Don’t have a LinkedIn account? Fix this situation and tell the whole world that you have joined the community of crypto entrepreneurs.
But there are freelance exchanges where you can even get paid in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum:
Forums
Visit the BitcoinTalk or CryptoTalk forums. There you will find job offers or you can offer your services to startups that are just starting up and are open to new talent. Or just offer your services in a section specially created for this purpose.
You’ll be surprised by how little competition there is. But you can also find work in cryptoland in traditional forums that deal with investing, trading and working on the Internet. Usually, such forums have special sections dedicated to cryptocurrencies.
Messengers
Have you heard of Discord? It turns out that this is not only a chat for game lovers, but a whole platform for creating communities and even coworking. But obviously the leader among job search tools among messengers is Telegram. Enter “Crypto work” or “Blockchain work” in the search box, and you will find dozens of channels and groups with vacancies from crypto projects and more. Facebook and Twitter will work too.
Website
You can create your own website or blog dedicated to cryptocurrencies or blockchain investments and promote your services around the world without being limited to any one channel. A whole host of sites are available to you: Youtube, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter, Medium and many others. The more channels you use, the greater audience you can attract – your possibilities are unlimited.
Conclusion
Working in the field of cryptocurrencies opens a lot of opportunities for startup development. If you occupy a niche now, you will secure a large share of a rapidly developing market in the future. And the sooner you do it, the greater the prospects are most likely to open up for you.
Whose example will you follow: the successful leading crypto exchange Binance or Elon Musk’s critics who are losing ground and ignoring the current problems of the international community?
