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Hire Smart Contract Developers: Everything You Need to Know

Alexander Prokopiev
Alexander Prokopiev CEO of ARTJOKER
14 min read

In this article, we will share valuable knowledge with you about how to find and hire the best remote smart contract developer, what skills he should have to successfully develop your project, and what are the pitfalls. Experienced smart contract developers should have expertise in blockchain, be able to protect users from hacking, and provide automation of transactions.

What is a Smart Contract Developer?

The profession of a smart contract developer involves the creation of blockchain network algorithms. Presently, there are many areas where this technology is already in use 🙂. More and more companies want to hire smart contract developers for their teams. Foremost, blockchain provides the possibility of a secure transaction without the participation of third parties, with all the consequences that this entails. The development of decentralized finance and the ecosystem of applications built around Ethereum has led to an increased need for highly skilled professionals capable of developing a proper, viable smart contract. In this regard, companies are trying to attract Smart Contract developers with high salaries.

What does a Smart Contract Developer do?

A smart contract is a computer algorithm designed to maintain self-executable contracts in a blockchain environment. Such contracts are drafted by a smart contracts developer, allowing assets to be exchanged without intermediaries. Developing smart contracts is arguably one of the key and challenging tasks in creating blockchain products. A smart contract developer is involved in a requirements assessment, design, development, debugging and testing of smart contracts.

What Types of Products Should You Hire Smart Contract Developers For?

Because of its intelligence and undeniable properties, the smart contract has begun to have an impact on different types of products. Smart contracts take away the physical logistics, allowing you to minimize intermediaries and legal hurdles. There are many types of products you should hire a smart contract developer for, to achieve complete transparency, accuracy, and reliability.

DeFi Apps

Due to smart contracts, DeFi Apps can provide any financial service without the need for regulatory support. With the use of smart contracts, DeFi Apps have enabled a variety of transactions such as derivative transactions, borrowing and lending. In this case, smart contracts are used to guarantee compliance with conditional agreements in the correct algorithmic sequence.

Hire Smart Contract Developers: Everything You Need to Know

Insurance Apps

Insurance contracts contain a multitude of condition-specific rules, which, when triggered, automatically fulfill the requirements of the smart contract, thereby providing transparency in the process. The use of a smart contract application provides an efficient, enforceable process and becomes a single source of truth when interacting with the insurance company. Many records get lost, or challenged, smart contracts solve this problem.

Hire Smart Contract Developers: Everything You Need to Know - 1

Real Estate Apps

The real estate industry is just beginning to master the use of smart contracts, but is developing the use of this technology at a high rate. Using the real estate application, you will be able to contact any agent, builder, to order the purchase of an apartment or a house, which will help eliminate the commissions associated with the purchase.

Hire Smart Contract Developers: Everything You Need to Know - 2

What Skills Does a Smart Contract Developer Need?

Only with the necessary technical skills, a smart contract developer will be able to transform the technology market and qualitatively develop your product 😜. Before hiring smart contract developers, you should have a clear idea of what skills and knowledge they should have to perform their duties well.

Fundamentals

The developer of smart contracts must understand all the basics of computer technology, including a good understanding of the basics of computer science, programming, networking, and network classification. They must also have detailed knowledge of blockchain technology, how it works, its applications in practice and its main benefits. The developer of smart contracts must have programming experience in a high-level language, such as JavaScript or Python.

Cryptography

Cryptography plays a considerable role in the foundation of blockchain, and is undoubtedly an important skill for a qualified smart contract developer. Cryptography is an integral part of blockchain technology and a smart contract developer must be able to work with public and private key pairs, use digital signatures to verify identity and ensure that signing messages is easy. A blockchain developer must understand the role of hashing for cryptography, how it helps to connect different blocks securely and how to use it in practice.

Security

Writing secure code is hard enough, but it's the only way to avoid a hostile takeover of a smart contract, so ensuring security is a significant skill for a programmer. A developer must learn how to secure smart contracts all the time because attackers find new ways to exploit flaws in contracts and use them for fraudulent purposes. To avoid different types of attacks, you need to secure smart contracts and know how to deal with common attacks.

Where to Find Smart Contract Developers?

For companies that are new to the world of blockchain recruiting, it might seem that all you need to do is learn the basic concepts of blockchain and a smart contract developer is already on your team. But unfortunately, the usual search tools don't work, and it takes a lot more time to get the attention of qualified smart contract professionals. We've put together the most comprehensive list of resources to answer the question of where you can find a certified smart contract developer for hire.

Job sites

Job sites have a number of unique search features, have a database of qualified smart contract developers, and display them in a simple and easy-to-use format. Job sites help select employees and fill missing job vacancies. Generally speaking, job sites have their pros and cons, which we will tell you about below.

Pros

  • Because job sites are widely used, hundreds of possible smart contract developers can see your job posting.
  • Job sites streamline the hiring process, you can find a smart contract developer based on the skills you need for the position, just as programmers can find your position and apply for it.

Cons

  • The biggest disadvantage of job sites is resume spamming, recruiters have to spend a lot of time and effort reviewing all resumes, most of which will turn out to be unsatisfactory.
  • Smart contract developers of the highest class do not use job sites.
  • Your company will have to pay for job postings on job sites, and if you don't find the right candidates, you're just wasting a lot of money.

Recruiting Agencies

Going to a recruiting agency is one of the many ways to recruit certified smart contract developers, but there is always a lot of speculation and questions around it. Recruiting agencies have access to numerous databases, and can find a specific blockchain specialist for your company. It is up to you to decide whether it is worth contacting recruiting agencies, but first, study the main pros and cons of this idea.

Pros

  • Agencies work all the time on the process of finding qualified candidates and know where to find even the most narrowly focused professionals, such as smart contract developers.
  • An employee of a recruiting agency gets paid only if he successfully closes the customer's vacancy, and this encourages quality and promptness in the work.
  • To find smart contract developers more effectively, recruiters at agencies jointly search for specialists, allocate sources and interact with them. This solution increases recruiters' productivity, search speed and efficiency.

Cons

  • Some recruiting companies select smart contract developers based on two criteria: education and work experience. But, unfortunately, these criteria cannot guarantee that an employee is the right fit for the company. When selecting specialists in this way, recruiters do not consider their personal qualities, motivation, compliance with the corporate culture, and do not understand whether they will cope with the workload.
  • Unscrupulous recruiting companies don't check smart contracts engineers before recommending them. Checking references about a professional is one of the main requirements for successful hiring.

Hire Smart Contract Developers: Everything You Need to Know - 3

Outsourcing Firms

Outsourcing is becoming more and more popular in today's world, especially in the blockchain industry. Instead of expanding the core staff, companies simply order the necessary services from outsourcing companies. As a result, this allows them to get high-quality help in solving problems and this saves money. When choosing this strategy for hiring smart contract developers, it is necessary to consider the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing, which we have described below.

Pros

  • The cost of maintaining full-time staff is reduced. Smart contract specialists are paid only for the work they do, not for the time they spend at work.
  • There is no need to pay for vacation and other mandatory social benefits.
  • No need to manage business processes, you give the task to the developers of smart contracts and get the desired result.
  • Usually, outsourced developers of smart contracts are professionals with extensive experience, so they do not require additional training to perform the work.

Cons

  • Smart contract developers who are not in the organization may be less responsible for their tasks. Of course, they won't get paid for poor results, but the lost time will have a negative impact on the business.
  • You cannot strictly control outsourced smart contract developers in terms of deadlines and scope of tasks, you have to make compromises, agree to their deadlines, and take professional recommendations into account.
  • Even though outsourcers are obliged to keep confidential information entrusted to them, it is impossible to control this completely.

Hire Smart Contract Developers: Everything You Need to Know - 4

Freelance Platforms

These days, employers often work with freelance Smart Contract developers who provide professional services but are not full-time employees. As a rule, they work remotely. There are advantages and disadvantages to hiring freelancers that are worth considering.

Pros of hiring a Smart Contract freelancer

  • The cost of hiring a Smart Contract freelancer is cheaper for the company. A Smart Contract freelancer takes payment only for the work done.
  • There is less paperwork bureaucracy.
  • The chance of hiring an incompetent Smart Contract freelancer is low, most frequently a programmer will not agree to do work in which he has little understanding.
  • Freelance employees are not bound by a schedule, typically they work without days off and holidays to deliver the project faster.

Cons of hiring a Smart Contract freelancer

  • A Smart Contract freelancer can do several projects at the same time to ensure a steady income, thus the deadline for the delivery of your work can unexpectedly shift.
  • No one can fully control the freelancer and the quality of his work, which means that there may be unpleasant surprises in the process, especially if you have a task that needs to be urgently done.
  • There is a chance that you encounter a scammer or just an irresponsible worker.

When to hire a freelance Smart Contract developer?

It makes sense to hire freelance developers if you do not have a large-scale and complex project. Freelancers are good for working on low-budget startups. Or, if you need to solve a small, one-time task, during the development of a large product, which in-house specialists can't handle.

Talent Platforms

Talent platforms are a reliable and efficient way to find and hire high-quality, pre-vetted smart contract developers. Programmers at talent platforms are pre-vetted, interviewed and tested on their technical knowledge and skills, so you can be sure you'll get highly qualified smart contract professionals who meet your requirements. Job postings will always cost a company more than turning to talent platforms, and if you can't find the right programmers, those costs will be meaningless. So, you'll find the best smart contract developers for hire on talent platforms.

Hire Smart Contract Developers: Everything You Need to Know - 5

Employ In-house Smart Contract Developers

Hiring in-house smart contract developers for your team is the most transparent and obvious option to improve the work process, but the most complex in terms of implementation. In-house smart contract developers working in one office, is the most effective way to organize the workflow. Before deciding, think thoroughly about this, compare all the pros and cons.

Advantages of hiring in-house Smart Contract developers:

  • An in-house smart contract developer is involved in the internal processes of the company. He has a complete understanding of the company, its values and mission.
  • An in-house smart contract developer performs the tasks of your company only. He is available eight hours a day and is not distracted by extraneous projects, this simplifies the process of communicating and making edits.
  • You know you don't have to wait for the developer to be available to fix the project because you coordinate their work yourself.
  • An in-house smart contract developer doesn't work for a competitor, and there's unlikely to be a conflict of interest with him.
  • An in-house smart contract developer is interested in the development and growth of your company, so it is profitable for him to perform tasks of high quality.

Disadvantages of hiring in-house Smart Contract developers

  • An in-house smart contract developer is officially employed, he is entitled to paid vacation and sick leave. However, there is no guarantee that an in-house smart contract developer will have a full workload, then it turns out that the employer pays not only for his work, but also the employee's downtime.
  • Hiring an in-house smart contract developer is half the battle, he needs to be provided with a workplace and guarantees. Jobseekers expect a comfortable space, insurance, corporate English, training and professional development, payment for the gym, etc. Additional costs may require equipment: a computer and licensed programs, although some programmers prefer to work on their laptops.
  • Official employment, whether in the office or remotely, brings the cost of taxes and contributions. The office itself must be accessible, an inconvenient location may discourage jobseekers.

When to employ an in-house Smart Contract developer?

In-house smart contract developers are a must-have if your company has enough tasks for them on a full-time basis. But if a company doesn't have a constant need for smart contract developers, then hiring them would be unprofitable because you would have to pay for downtime. If the task is to develop a large-scale project, the work on it will take a long time, and will constantly need the services of smart contract developers, then hiring them will be a good option.

Hire a Dedicated Smart Contract Development Team

A dedicated team is a collaborative model where you are provided with a smart contract of specialists on a long-term basis. A team of blockchain specialists is selected according to the requirements of the project, based on their experience and skills. You manage the development and coordinate the communication process as if they were your full-time employees. The main goal of this model is to quickly hire smart contracts developers that will make up for the lack of necessary knowledge.

Advantages of cooperating with a dedicated Smart Contract development team

  • Hiring is fast, you get immediate access to smart contract talents with advanced knowledge of blockchain technology.
  • No search, resume review or interview costs.
  • No delay in launching your project, you won't lose your projected profits.
  • Furthermore, you'll be involved in the management of allocated Smart Contract specialists, which implies daily communication with the team. Thanks to this you always know what the Smart Contract developers are doing, how far they have progressed and what difficulties they have encountered.

Disadvantages of cooperating with a dedicated Smart Contract development team

  • Using the dedicated Smart Contract development team model has low efficiency for short-term projects.
  • You assume some risks of the project. The Smart Contract dedicated team is subject to all the processes of your company, but if those processes are different from what the dedicated developers are used to, problems may arise.
  • The ability of a particular dedicated Smart Contract specialist to adapt to a new environment is important here, it all depends on the individual. You must transfer the knowledge and allocate resources to maintain the project documentation.

When to hire a dedicated Smart Contract development team

The dedicated Smart Contract development team format works well when you have development experience, and know how to build processes to work effectively, but you don't have your own resources to implement the project. Perhaps you don't have your own blockchain department, or it's too busy to be distracted from the strategic priorities of the business. If you can't clearly define the scope of work, and the requirements change during the process, then it's beneficial to hire a dedicated Smart Contract development team.

How to Hire Smart Contract Developers?

Do you want to hire smart contract developers for your critical projects, but you can't seem to manage it 🤨? It's not surprising, hiring a professional smart contract developer is a very hard task. We will give you some useful materials with which you can hire the best smart contract developers.

Interview Questions to Ask a Smart Contract Developer before Hiring

  1. Do smart contracts have any legal regulations?
  2. What is the best programming language for creating smart contracts?
  3. Can you explain the benefits of using a smart contract?
  4. What are the best practices for developing a good, smart contract?
  5. What are the features of smart contracts with cryptocurrency wallets?
  6. Can you give examples of real-world applications that use smart contracts?
  7. What are the main functions of a Smart Contract?
  8. Can you name three key elements of a smart contract?
  9. Which users can access the smart contract code?
  10. What are modifiers, and what is their importance?

Why to Hire Smart Contract Developers at ARTJOKER?

  • Technical Excellence

We've been in the Blockchain technology business for years. We do one thing, and we do it well. Smart contracts developed by our experts can be easily integrated into any type of business. Our developers develop custom smart contract scenarios, so the automated nature of smart contracts won't harm your business partnerships in any way.

  • Highly Skilled Smart Contract Developers

Smart contract developers at our firm pay special attention to client satisfaction during development and do their best to deliver an effective solution in the shortest possible time. Our experts will offer you the best technical approach and take care of its implementation.

  • Agile Development Approach

The specialists of our studio are certified and have flexible thinking, so the clients receive a finished and reliable product as a result of development. We take a service, process, and product improvement approach.

  • Robust Hack Protection

Our studio experts use time-tested, modern, advanced smart contract coding techniques to eliminate any vulnerabilities and loopholes in smart contract logic. Our developers also perform multi-round audits and code tests to prevent obsolete dependencies, logic problems, and any bugs.

Conclusions

Hiring smart contract developers should be approached consciously. Don't rush when writing a job description, hoping that the right person will find themselves. Think about what kind of candidate you need and try to convey that image through the vacancy, you need smart contract developers to recognize themselves in it. Don't delay in hiring, think through how at each stage you will verify the necessary blockchain competencies. The faster candidates move through the funnel, the better your chances of getting a qualified person on your team. If you delay the hiring process, the candidate may get an offer to another company and leave your company for another workplace.

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