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US Lost 14% Blockchain Developer Share Since 2018: Coinbase
Fortune 500 companies are increasingly interested in the onchain economy, Coinbase says, but notes that the developer talent pool is moving offshore.
According to Coinbase research, only 26% of blockchain developers are based in the United States.
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Published June 12, 2024 at 9:14 pm EST.
Major American public companies have been engaging in onchain, with Fortune 100 companies implementing a record number of onchain initiatives in the first quarter of 2024, according to new research from Coinbase.
The state of cryptocurrencies relationship notes that the volume of onchain initiatives from the 100 largest companies grew 39% year over year, and that mentions of bitcoin and stablecoins in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings reached new highs in the first quarter.
About 56% of Fortune 500 executives surveyed said their companies are working on onchain projects, with cross-border payments, settlements, treasury management and tokenization as key areas of focus
However, while traditional finance interest appears more promising than ever, the data also shows that the United States has been losing ground to international counterparts in terms of local talent for developing these blockchain-based systems.
“The US continues to lose developer share, down 14 points over the past five years; today only 26% of cryptocurrency developers are based in the United States,” Coinbase noted.
This figure is especially concerning when you take into account that Fortune 500 executives have said that concerns about trusted talent pose a bigger barrier to adoption than the current regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.
According to Electric Capital’s 2023 cryptocurrency developer relationship, 72% of blockchain developers are located outside of North America. Meanwhile, countries in South Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, West Africa and Southern Europe have increased their share of developers by more than 20% since 2018.
While some industry observers have attributed the declining share of developers in the United States to the lack of clear cryptocurrency regulations in the country, there may be another, more obvious reason for this change: It’s cheaper to hire a Web3 developer from outside the United States. United.
A blockchain clearing survey from Pantera Capital in October found that the average salary for crypto engineers in North America is $166,010, while the average for Europe, the Middle East and Africa is $102,226. Meanwhile, the average salary for developers in Latin America stands at $90,559, and in the Asia Pacific region, it is much lower at $75,000.