Earning a degree in computer science, degree in information technology IT or a related field to become a blockchain engineer will provide you with the technical and programming skills to work on many types of blockchain projects.
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Blockchain is a digital, completely decentralized public ledger of all types of cryptocurrency transactions using Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and others.
Blockchain engineers are computer and software programming professionals who highly skilled in computer languages used to develop blockchain, such as C++, Go and Python. Skills are also important in object oriented programming, Java/C# and Bitcoin Core.
A blockchain engineer is very different from a web developer, database developer or distributed systems developer, although it does have parts of all three. Primarily, blockchain engineers design protocols, determine how to plan for adversarial incentives, and engage in a lot of assumption testing.
Billions of dollars are being invested in developing blockchain technology by major financial companies as well as startups. So, becoming a blockchain engineer with a computer science degree or other type of degree will make you highly qualified for some of the best paying tech jobs in the country.
To get a better idea of what your possible salary could be as a blockchain engineer, this article describes the most important factors that affect blockchain engineer salaries:
- Whether you earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree
- Where you work (type of company)
- How many years of work experience you have
- Where you live in the country
Once you have all of this information, it is possible to get a good idea of what your blockchain engineer salary may be.
Level of Blockchain Engineer Degree
There is ample research available that demonstrates earning a master’s degree will earn you more more over your life than just a bachelor’s degree.
For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a $12,000 premium salary for master’s degrees over bachelor’s degrees on average in terms of salary.
For technical professionals, you will generally earn a higher salary with a master’s degree. For example, these technical and computer science related professions typically see a higher salary for people with a masters:
- Web developers: $61,000 vs. $75,000 per year
- Information security analysts: $85,000 vs. $100,000
- Network and computer systems administrators: $70,000 vs. $88,000
- Mathematicians and statisticians: $60,000 vs. $80,000
Also, Payscale.com reports the following salaries for professionals with a bachelor’s degree in software engineering, which has some similarities to blockchain engineering:
- Software engineer: $66,700
- Software developer: $59,200
- Senior software engineer: $95,000
- Web developer: $52,900
- Engineering analyst: $53,600
With a master’s degree in software engineering, these are typical salaries, according to Payscale:
- Software engineer: $85,600
- Senior software engineer: $96,600
- Software developer: $60,600
- Senior technical consultant: $95,371
- Software engineering manager: $102,200
Generally, one can expect to earn a higher salary in technology, software, and computer engineering occupations with a master’s degree, which includes blockchain engineer.
Where You Work (Company)
Who is hiring blockchain engineers and other blockchain professionals? A lot of companies.
A recent job survey in 2018 of blockchain job openings found that IBM is the top blockchain employer at this time. The company had 49 blockchain openings on Indeed.com and 221 ads on Linkedin.com, with jobs advertised all over the world.
There also are dozens of blockchain related jobs offered by IBM on a Google search.
The second blockchain hiring company was Accenture with 180 blockchain jobs advertised on Linkedin.
There also are a lot of startup companies hiring blockchain engineers: Coins.ph and Hydrogen among them. The latter is a Fintech platform that allows companies to more easily build blockchain based financial service applications.
The survey found that large, legacy firms tended to pay approximately $110,000 for developer and engineer professionals in blockchain. Startup companies tended to pay approximately $85,000 for the same role. Overall software developers in blockchain were earning around $110,000 per year, with junior developers and engineers getting $90,000, while senior level engineers were getting paid up to $144,000 per year.
To get a better idea of blockchain engineer and developer salaries, Payscale.com reports the following salaries for blockchain professionals by job title:
- Senior software engineer: $135,000
- Software developer: $77,000
- Senior software engineer: $129,900
- Research scientist: $110,000
- VP of engineering: $180,000
Blockchain Engineer Work Experience
Your level of work experience will also influence what you can earn as a blockchain engineer. Senior blockchain engineers and developers earned salaries in the $125,000 to $150,000 range and have the most complete technical skills in Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, .NET, MVC, AJAX, SQL, C, C++, C#, Javascript, Node.js, JQuery, SOAP, REST, FTP, HTML, XML, XSLT, XCOD, Neural-networks, Regression, Agile Scrum, MYSQL.
Midlevel engineers with a few years of experience tend to earn under $100,000 with skills in SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, jQuery, JUnit, Java, Maven, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Smart Contracts, Geth, while junior developers start out in the $50,000 to $60,000 range with skills in Python, Django, C++, HTML, CSS, Javascript, NodeJs, Blockchain, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Go.
Payscale.com does not have specific salary data for blockchain engineers, but software developers are a related field, and their pay changes based upon years of experience:
- Less than 5 years of experience: $65,000
- 5 to 10 years of experience: $81,000
- 10 to 20 years of experience: $92,000
- More than 20 years of experience: $99,000
Where You Live
Computer and technical salaries such as blockchain engineer and software engineer also will vary widely depending upon where you live. The national average salary for software developer is $70,200, according to Payscale.com.
Salaries will go up or down as follows based upon the city in which you live:
- San Francisco: +44%
- Seattle: +28%
- New York: +26%
- Boston: +16%
- Washington: +11%
- Los Angeles: +9%
- Chicago: +5%
- Austin: +0%
- Houston: -1%
- Denver: -5%
According to Glassdoor.com, a blockchain developer in New York City reported making $110,000 in his job. In the DC area, a blockchain developer reported earning $100,000. In Dallas, blockchain developers report making an average of $93,700 per year.
The outlook for blockchain engineers is extremely bright, so you would be wise to develop skills in desired programming languages so that you can work on some of the most exciting and lucrative software development and engineering projects in the future.
References
- How to Become a Blockchain Developer. (2017). Retrieved from https://hackernoon.com/how-to-become-a-blockchain-developer-with-jimmy-song-a1333072a2e3
- Should I Get a Master’s Degree? (2015). Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/should-i-get-a-masters-degree.htm#STEM
- Blockchain Jobs and Salaries Report 2018. (2018). Retrieved from https://hackernoon.com/blockchain-jobs-and-salaries-2018-report-45d3e7741c19
- Blockchain Developer Salaries – 2018 Report. (2018). Retrieved from https://howtotoken.com/career/blockchain-developer-salaries-2018-report/
