Integrating blockchain technology into banking, energy, healthcare, supply chain, real estate, IoT, Web 3.0, and other industries is receiving a great response. The result is the influx of global venture capital investment in blockchain startups, which sat at a record $25 billion in 2021, according to the State of Blockchain 2021 report. Around $30 billion was invested in cryptocurrencies in 2021, as it stated in PitchBook Data Report.
The leaders in terms of investment were Coinbase Ventures, AU21 Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. The last firm alone has invested in 46 blockchain startups.
Along with the development of startups, blockchain is increasingly becoming used in the public sectors of various countries around the world. The UAE plans to store all government documentation and data on the blockchain, and Estonia stores part of their residents’ medical data on blockchain. In Switzerland, Zug was the first city to accept tax payments in bitcoin, launched a digital identity on Ethereum, and tested voting on blockchain.
As we can see, the speed of blockchain technology adoption is growing rapidly, but one significant barrier to development is the lack of companies and IT specialists with the necessary skills needed to confidently build blockchain-based solutions. As a recent article in Forkast states, since cryptocurrency is still in its infancy, recruiting for crypto and blockchain developments is a difficult task due to a limited talent pool and a lack of candidates with relevant experience.
With a blockchain developer shortfall, more companies are looking further field and finding success in Eastern Europe, with competent and dedicated developers at affordable prices. In this blog post, we will look at why Eastern Europe is often called the biggest blockchain and crypto development hub, which countries are leading the labor market, and where to hire blockchain developers for your business.
Why Eastern Europe developers?
With the proliferation of quality remote-working tools, hiring companies or developers from other countries is a much more common practice now. In terms of number, most blockchain developers are located in the United States, India, UK, Canada, and France. In all of these countries except India, there is a high standard of living, and, accordingly, high salaries.
Especially for a business located in Western Europe or the UK, Eastern Europe is a fantastic destination for highly qualified software development services, with a similarity of time zones, culture, and close proximity.
5 Eastern Europe countries providing leading blockchain developers
Leading technology companies, such as IBM, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, have opened software development centers in Eastern Europe in recent years. These companies decided to engage blockchain developers from Eastern Europe due to the quality of the services provided and the cost-effectiveness. Countries such as Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Belarus, and Bulgaria are best suited to provide quality results at more affordable prices.
According to the Clutch IT Companies Directory, there are 268 blockchain development companies listed in Eastern Europe, 113 of which are located in Ukraine. DAXX company in its report for 2021 named Ukraine No. 1 for IT offshoring in Eastern Europe and the best in the world for hiring developers.
Reasons to hire Ukrainian developers for blockchain and crypto services
Niche expertise
Ukraine is one of the few countries that has established regulation at the legislative level, with low taxes and transparent operating activities. The government strongly supports blockchain and crypto education among the population to help integrate blockchain technology into the Ukrainian economy, as it positions itself to be the main decentralized finance hub of not just Eastern Europe, but the whole world.
Ukrainian developers are among the best specialists in blockchain and crypto development, with a decent balance of quality and availability of services.
A large pool of specialists
According to the study by IT Ukraine Association, In 2021, the IT industry in Ukraine now employs over 285,000 professionals. The main reason for the high number of specialists is partly down to the sheer number of technical universities that are pumping out new graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Time zone
Ukraine is located in a convenient time zone, which allows working and communicating with any European country and the USA at convenient hours.
Language
According to the EP English Proficiency Index Report 2021, Ukraine ranks 40th out of 112 countries that were surveyed. Ukrainian developers understand the importance of English; young professionals learn it not only for work but for their personal lives, travel, and self-education. This allows them to communicate and work with clients from all over the world.
Pricing
Even compared with other Eastern European countries, the cost of living in Ukraine is one of the cheapest due to lower salaries. Countries with a high rate of blockchain development solutions, such as the US, Canada, and the UK, can afford to pay wages for Ukrainian developers that aren’t exorbitant, while still receiving high-quality services.
Data: Daxx
Top Blockchain businesses created by Ukrainian developers
Here’s a selection of achievements that Ukrainian blockchain developers have contributed to the crypto and decentralized finance ecosystem.
Trust Wallet
Trust Wallet is a multi-currency wallet that allows buying, receiving, exchanging, storing, and transferring top cryptocurrencies. The creator of the wallet, Viktor Radchenko, began working on it in 2017, and in 2018, it was acquired by the world’s largest centralized exchange, Binance. Currently, the wallet supports staking, NFT storage, and anonymous trading on Binance DEX.
Matter Labs
Matter Labs is a startup founded in 2019 by Ukrainian Alex Gluchowski and Russian Alexandr Vlasov. Matter was created to solve Ethereum’s scaling problem and blockchain transactions faster, cheaper, and greener. Thanks to zksync solution, the network bandwidth can reach 2000 TPS. In November 2021, Matter Labs raised $50 million in funding.
Read more about Ethereum scaling solutions in our previous blog post.
Solana
Ukrainian Anatoly Yakovenko founded the blockchain startup Solana in 2017. The platform is now one of the most popular blockchains globally for deploying dApps, smart contracts development, and crypto-wallets due to its higher throughput, low fees, and grants to support developers. Solana’s market capitalization is currently $56 billion.
Read more about Solana blockchain’s benefits in our blog.
Distributed Lab
Distributed Lab – a company founded by Ukrainian Pavel Kravchenko in 2014 specializes in accounting system development on blockchain. The company’s flagship is the TokenD framework, on the basis of which it is possible to build much cheaper and faster payment systems, NFT marketplaces, or even a mobile bank on the blockchain.
DMarket
DMarket was founded in 2017 by a Ukrainian developer and owner of a digital content distribution company, Vladimir Panchenko. Initially, the platform was a marketplace for trading virtual items and game heroes. With the advent and development of GameFi, the company has become a cross-platform that accumulates multiple metaverses for brands, influencers, video games, and more.
Summing Up
Choosing a company for blockchain development is a task that requires a lot of effort and time. The number of companies providing blockchain services (from dApps development to the creation of crypto projects of varying complexity) has increased significantly over the past couple of years. When choosing a company, be sure to consider the budget, IT talent pool, previous successful cases, and more. Do your research and choose a better company for your business needs. We hope that our review will help you decide where to hire blockchain developers in Eastern Europe.
Choose INC4 as your trusted blockchain development company
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