Source: Cointelegraph
Original: “Blockchain Needs Regulation and Scalability to Narrow the Hiring Gap with AI”
The emerging blockchain industry lags behind the artificial intelligence sector in job creation, but this hiring gap may gradually narrow before 2030.
According to the latest report shared by Bitget Research with Cointelegraph, blockchain remains one of the smallest fields in the tech industry, with approximately 300,000 jobs globally. In contrast, the artificial intelligence and machine learning sector has 1.5 million jobs, while software development boasts 25 million positions.
Based on job postings statistics from platforms like LinkedIn, Web3 Jobs, and Crypto Job List, the blockchain industry is expected to add about 20,000 jobs in 2024.
The report notes that while the annual compound growth rate (CAGR) for blockchain-related jobs has reached 45%, surpassing most traditional tech sectors, it still lags behind the AI industry's 57% CAGR.
Vugar Usi Zade, Chief Operating Officer of Bitget Exchange, stated in an interview with Cointelegraph that the maturity of the AI industry and a larger share of venture capital are the main reasons for the hiring gap:
"In 2024, venture capitalists invested over $100 billion in AI startups, with more than 1 million job vacancies related to AI globally. In comparison, blockchain companies only posted about 20,000 job vacancies during the same period, with new funding of only about $5.4 billion."
AI-related job vacancies have increased by 75% to 100% year-on-year, while blockchain employment growth rates remain in the range of 45% to 60%.
The report indicates that if the blockchain industry can maintain the same growth rate as AI jobs, it could exceed 1 million jobs by 2030.
Zade mentioned that regulatory clarity brought by regulations such as the European Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) could encourage blockchain companies to ramp up hiring:
"Since the MiCA rules took effect in December 2024, they have begun to alleviate hiring freezes in Europe; if the U.S. and Asia can achieve similar regulatory clarity, it will help drive global hiring plans."
"Secondly, enterprise-level performance: Ethereum's Dencun upgrade has reduced layer two network fees by over 95%, indicating that blockchain can now handle enterprise-level transaction volumes at acceptable costs," he added.
Jawad Ashraf, CEO of Vanar Chain, stated in an interview with Cointelegraph that while blockchain-related job positions are expected to grow, "AI will naturally attract more talent in the next decade."
"This is because the market consolidation speed of AI is faster than any other modern technology we can remember," he said. "When looking at blockchain, we are still very focused on integrating with traditional finance (TradFi) and broader Web3 markets like gaming and physical tokenization."
He added, "Blockchain has yet to penetrate more traditional consumer-facing markets. This will happen in the near future, but we are not there yet."
Yakov Lebedev, Chief Business Development Officer of 3Commas, a trading automation solution provider, stated in an interview with Cointelegraph: "AI and blockchain are not competing for talent; they are collaborating to create new opportunities."
He noted that combining the two technologies can "enable everyone, not just large institutions, to use complex financial tools," and added:
"Companies are willing to pay high salaries for professionals who understand both AI and blockchain because they recognize the value of this cross-domain expertise."
Lebedev further stated that as financial and tech companies shift integrated solutions from pilot projects to core operations, the integration of blockchain and AI is driving steady job growth in both fields.
Adi Ben-Ari, founder and CEO of AI-driven blockchain development company Applied Blockchain, stated that thanks to the synergy of the two technologies, blockchain job growth may begin to mirror that of the AI industry.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, he said that AI technology "is probabilistic and introduces uncertainty," which creates more demand for blockchain and cryptographic technologies.
"The results generated by AI are not always accurate, can be false, and sometimes go wrong," he said. "This new uncertainty requires a technology that can provide absolute certainty to offset it, and that is where blockchain and cryptography come into play."
Ben-Ari added that as AI consumes more personal data, the ability of blockchain to protect sensitive information through cryptographic technology will become increasingly important.
AI agents have already begun using cryptocurrency for autonomous trading. On-chain data shows that on December 16, 2024, the AI agent Luna on the Virtuals Protocol paid another AI agent on the STIX Protocol 1.77 USD worth of Virtual (VIRTUAL) tokens in exchange for its image generation services.
Related: The White House Receives Over 10,000 Public Comments on AI Development Plans
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