It is raining Web3 jobs for techies in India 

It is raining Web3 jobs in India as crypto companies and investors bet big on the booming Web3 startup ecosystem in the country. According to a report by specialised staffing firm Xpheno, there were 13,000 crypto related jobs in India as of February 2022, which is 4.5 percent of the total active job openings.

With huge demand, salaries are going as high as Rs 78 lakh per annum for people with close to 10 years of experience, the report said.

Web3 jobs

Web3 is the next version of the Internet, where services will run on blockchain. It was merely a buzzword until a few months back when a handful of companies like Polygon were working on this concept. Now, things have changed drastically.

Multiple projects have come up in just the last few months, and more investments have been flowing into the country. For instance, venture capital firm Antler India plans to deploy $100-150 million in more than 100 startups in India over the next three years. Reports say that Web3 can help India contribute $1.1 trillion to its GDP in the next 11 years.

This is not just for Web3 though. Metaverse, which took off since Facebook rebranded to Meta in October 2021, has taken off in a big way and is seeing the demand spike for techies. Metaverse is a 3D virtual world, where people can interact in their digital avatars in a virtual concert, interviews or meetings.

With overlap in the skills, which includes blockchain, security engineer and machine learning experts, there is a huge demand for Web3 related jobs in the country.

Hiring in Web3

There were 13,000 active job openings in the sector as of February 2022, an 18 percent growth over the last three months. Bengaluru and Mumbai continue to be the hotspots for crypto jobs, followed by Delhi/NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune. “These locations collectively account for nearly 74 percent of active openings in the crypto and blockchain space,” the report said.

In terms of industries, the report pointed out that the IT services and business process management sector are the largest consumers of blockchain and crypto talent with 39 percent of current openings emerging from this sector. However, the hiring will be led by the overseas crypto and blockchain ventures and products across roles such as consulting, design and development, and support services, the report added.

Take, for instance, platforms such as Coinbase. Back in April 2021, former Google Pay executive and Coinbase's India site lead and vice president of engineering Pankaj Gupta in a blog post in April said: “Specifically, the plan is to hire hundreds of employees across all levels in engineering, product management, UX (user experience) design, research and programme management within the next one–two years to build out a full tech hub in India. Together, we’ll work on some of the most interesting challenges spanning the full modern tech stack — including deep tech areas like blockchains, data engineering, infrastructure, machine learning and more.”

Salary inflation, regulatory challenge

With demand increasing, salaries are also spiking. For top talents, salaries go up to Rs 80 lakh for niche skills. If you are a blockchain expert with just a couple of years of experience, your salary could command Rs 32 lakh per annum. For 8-12 years, your salary could be Rs 78 lakh per year, the report says.

Kamal Karanth, co-founder of specialist staffing company Xpheno, said, “Growth in domestic demand of crypto and blockchain talent will depend on how the regulatory and taxation aspects are cleared for a mainstream run by Indian crypto ventures. Meanwhile, the export services market will continue to keep talent funnel warm and make it hotter as action around Web3 and metaverse use cases picks up pace.”