How cryptocurrency market will help in creating job opportunities in India | Mint – Mint

Currently, the cryptocurrencies and blockchain industry are at the booming stage on the back of vast adoption globally. Despite being controversial and holding complex underlying technology, the cryptocurrency market is seen as a maturing industry with large investors parking their money in them. This market is evolving constantly!

At the 3rd edition of FICCI Leads 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, the use of blockchain technology is going to rise by about 46% in the next few years.

Rajagopal Menon, Vice President, WazirX cited the latest study conducted by LinkedIn revealed that job postings containing "Cryptocurrency," "Bitcoin," or "Blockchain" increased 394% year over year from 2020 to 2021.

Menon said, "all these spikes in job opportunities happened even when there were no proper regulations or policies provided by the government. Once India has an enabling regulatory framework that recognises the true potential of Blockchain and cryptos along with the pool of developers and talent available in the country we have an opportunity to lay the foundation of the new internet, Web 3.0."

In Menon's view, crypto is where the next big gold rush is happening, and naturally, VCs worldwide are extremely interested in investing in this space.

As per a report by Galaxy Digital Research, a New York-based financial services firm, venture capitalists (VCs) have pumped in more than n $10 billion in crypto startups in the first quarter of 2022. It could be in the region of 40-50 billion dollars on an annual basis.

With the right policies, Indian entrepreneurs could create the next few crypto unicorns in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi, Menon said.

Due to smartphones and super cheap data plans, content creation has accelerated in recent times in India. Menon said, "with its large audience, content platforms have tailor-made programs to attract the best creators. Like how China became the factory of the world, Indians can become the content-creating factory of the world with our knowledge of English.

According to WazirX VP, Web3 allows these creators to monetize their talent like never before - our artisans languishing in poverty can create NFTs that will appeal not only to the Indian diaspora but also to the larger western audience who are always looking out for newer, more different talents.

Blockchain technology still in its infancy has already created lots of job opportunities under Crypto, NFT, Blockchain gaming, Logistics, etc.

"All that is needed is for the policymakers to bring enabling regulations and frameworks to prevent the talents from leaving the country," Menon added.

Meanwhile, as per Amanjot Malhotra, Country Head - India, Bitay, the use of cryptocurrencies can provide a decentralized and communal approach toward job creation over a centrally-controlled and profit-driven approach.

Cryptocurrency seems to have established itself as a form of asset class, and Malhotra believes its economic impact is expected to be seen globally.

Among many areas, in which cryptocurrencies are expected to leave an impact, is also job creation, especially in India.

Bitay's India head cited Job posting platforms data which revealed job postings that are associated with terms such as cryptocurrency or blockchain have increased more than 600% since November 2015, with a 1,000% growth in searches for jobs.

Cryptocurrency jobs have increased by almost 15 times since 2019, which is a sign that organizations are looking for people with expertise in blockchain and Crypto. Blockchain Application developers, community managers, Asset managers, blockchain developers, and technical product managers, among others, are some of the many roles which could see a rise in hiring, Malhotra explained.

Malhotra believes the crypto sector will attract a lot of talent from other sectors as well as it is very attractive in terms of growth and culture. He added, "A lot of job seekers from various domains who are looking for jobs will find a lot of interesting opportunities in the cryptocurrency space."

Also, Malhotra said, "Insights from the industry have stated that the use of cryptocurrencies is expected to provide a decentralized and communal approach toward job creation over a centrally-controlled and profit-driven approach."

So far in 2022, the number of cryptocurrency job listings in the USA went up by 395%, as per a LinkedIn report.

In Malhotra's opinion, the increase in the usage of cryptocurrencies has the potential to benefit the Indian

technological industry in terms of employment. It will also show that the interest factor of working professionals in this space is high. Furthermore, jobs are being created for marketers, accountants, public policy specialists, and traders.

Finally, Malhotra concluded, "The usage of decentralized protocols and dapps such as smart contracts has the capability to help with the employment of industries such as banking and finance, real estate, and government authorities, among others."

Meanwhile, Sakina Arsiwala, Co-Founder, Taki said, "Recent regulations by governmental bodies have led some startups to feel apprehension. That said, my prediction is that there will be minimal impact felt by the overall talent pool. This stems from the fact that, while crypto as an industry is at a nascent stage, the growth rate is still very high. Amidst uncertainty, there are even greater opportunities for innovation."

Let's keep in mind that these regulations are being introduced with the motivation to protect consumers in the crypto industry. India is a top market for global companies in terms of skilled employees, Taki co-founder said.

Lastly, Arsiwala added, the Indian crypto-tech industry is expected to grow multiple times, which also reflects the forecasts that the industry will generate close to a million job opportunities.

Recently, BetterPlaces Frontline Index Report 2022, revealed that more than 8 million jobs were created in the frontline industry in FY 2022. As retail consumption bettered in the post-pandemic economy, the Q2 of FY 2022 saw a strong rise in demand for frontline workers because of a steady increase in jobs in the delivery and retail segments. E-commerce contributed the highest to the demand for frontline workers followed by logistics and mobility.

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How cryptocurrency market will help in creating job opportunities in India | Mint - Mint