Freelance Blockchain Developers or Blockchain Companies? Which one to hire?

Are you looking for blockchain developers?

If yes, we are here to help.

We have researched thoroughly on top blockchain resources from different countries such as US, UK, Australia, Canada and more to help you find the right technology partner. We have consolidated a complete list of top blockchain developers and come up with a comprehensive guide that includes:

Table Of Content

Chapter 1 – Individual Blockchain Developers vs Blockchain Development Companies

Chapter 2 – List of Top Blockchain Companies with experienced blockchain developers

Chapter 3 – List of top individual Blockchain Developers

Chapter 4 – Checklist for hiring the best Blockchain Developer

Chapter 5 – What are some of the tools used by Blockchain Developers?

Chapter 6 – How to not lose money when hiring Blockchain Developers?

Chapter 7 – What questions to ask when interviewing Blockchain Developers?

When you look out for good blockchain developers, don’t expect them to be the best programmers. Instead, you should find blockchain developers who are multi-faceted and specialized in multiple technology tools and languages.

To help you understand what skills should you look in a blockchain developer, we have created a checklist that will assist you in finding the right talent.

Checklist for hiring the best blockchain developers

1. Basic Development Skills

Firstly, a blockchain expert should be a developer who thinks about solving the problem logically and quantifies the data. They should have a fundamental knowledge of programming concepts, including OOPs, flat and relational database and procedural language.

Besides programming fundamentals, blockchain developers should also understand data structures such as Stack, LinkedList, Tree, Hash Tables and Queues. They should also have a good understanding of time and resource complexity of data structures.

Since blockchain is decentralized, it is essential to write the code efficiently to minimize the memory or network bandwidth usage.

Blockchain developers should alsoknow basic architectures like MVVM, Microservices, MVC and Document-View Architecture.

2. Understanding of Blockchain Concepts

When it comes to hiring blockchain developers, ensure that they must have a deep understanding of blockchain concepts, including immutability, consensus, DLT, smart contracts, tokenization, dApps, blockchain permissions and sharding. They should be able to decide which is the right blockchain platform for a specific use case.

3. Experience on multiple blockchain platforms

An expert who can work on a wide array of blockchain platforms is considered as the best blockchain developer. If you are planning to hire the team of blockchain experts or an individual developer, ensure to ask if they have experience of working on different blockchain platforms such as Hyperledger frameworks, Ethereum, EOS, Corda and more.

An experienced developer should be able to decide the right blockchain platform and technology stack for building a specific blockchain app. They should know how to set up development, testing, pre-production and release environment.

4. Work Experience
A blockchain developer should have an experience of at least 5-7 years in app development for building an enterprise-grade solution. Before you hire a developer for your project, ask them about their work experience and ask if they have built and delivered any blockchain solution to enterprises or startups.

Also, make sure if they can upgrade the blockchain apps in case of any OS updates or system updates. Working with different individual developers can be complicated as it becomes challenging to track the progress of a project.

Consider hiring an expert who can build an end-to-end enterprise-grade blockchain solution.

Among the above factors, one factor that plays a significant role is the blockchain development tools used by the blockchain developer.

Let’s discuss some of the tools that every blockchain developer should know about.

What are some of the blockchain developers tools?

Blockchain development tools can be categorized into three types:

• Blockchain Protocols
• Development Tools
• Environment for deployment

Some of the popular blockchain protocols are as follows:

• Ethereum
  Ethereum is an open-source blockchain platform which has been founded by Vitalk Buterin in late 2013 to build blockchain apps and smart contracts. It has EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) which provides a run-time environment to execute smart contracts on Ethereum.
• Hyperledger Fabric
  Hyperledger Fabric is a project of Hyperledger and explicitly designed to develop blockchain-based applications using a modular architecture. Fabric is used for building permissioned blockchain apps and allows only known identities to participate within the system.
• Hyperledger Sawtooth
  Hyperledger Sawtooth is another project of Hyperledger that allows to create, deploy and execute distributed ledgers. Using Proof of Elapsed Time algorithm, Sawtooth can integrate with hardware security solutions.
• Corda
  Corda is also one of the popular blockchain platforms that allow businesses to transact without intermediaries using smart contracts.  Since it is a permissioned blockchain platform, it only allows the known participants to access the data. Corda blockchain platform can be implemented across various use cases, including healthcare, government authorities and supply chain.
• EOS
  EOS is an open-source blockchain platform which has been designed for dApps development. It aims to provide decentralized app’s hosting, smart contracts capability, decentralized storage of enterprise solutions, thereby overcoming the challenges faced by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Click here to read more about blockchain protocols/platforms.

Some of the development tools used by blockchain developers:

• Remix IDE
  Remix is a browser-based tool which is designed for creating and deploying smart contracts. It can also be used to write, test, debug, test and deploy smart contracts in a programming language called Solidity.
• Solc
  Solidity is a programming language which has a syntax similar to that of ECMA script and used for creating smart contracts on Ethereum platform. Solc is used for converting Solidity script into a format readable by EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine).
• Ganache
  Ganache is a tool from Truffle Suite using which developers can create their private Ethereum blockchain for testing dApps. dApp deployment directly on Ethereum can charge a lot of gas to verify transactions. The tool allows you to test applications without any gas fee.
• EtherScripter
  EtherScripter comes with an easy-to-use interface that allows developers to code basic contracts. Since it has a drag and drop interface, developers can easily connect jigsaw puzzles pieces to develop the contract. EtherScripter can be used only with a serpent programming language.

How to not lose money when hiring blockchain developers?

When it comes to hiring blockchain developers, you should be extra careful as blockchain has entered the technology market only a few years back, and it is still in its early stages. First of all, you should understand what do you require before hiring a team of developers. Secondly, you should have a defined set of skills to look for resources in the right places.

To ensure you don’t lose money, we have created a list of factors that should be considered when hiring the blockchain developers.

• Blockchain development is a lot more than writing code
  It is wrong to say that developers are only responsible for writing the code of an application. Instead, blockchain developers might also impact user experience, workflow, content, brand reputation and much more. Make sure to find a technology partner who will also be responsible for design and deployment assistance besides coding.
• Setting up Consultations
  A personal or audio/video conference call with the blockchain developer can help you understand if they can fit with your software requirements. The initial consultation should be free of cost and should focus on how they will implement your idea.
• Blockchain projects they have worked on
  Ensure to go through a few of the blockchain projects to get an idea of the type of applications blockchain developers has worked on. The reason behind checking the portfolio of a developer or dedicated team is that it helps you understand how they implemented a methodology for successful completion of projects.

• Ask about communication practices
  Communication is essential for a good relationship and a competent product. You should have a high-level communication from the beginning of the journey with blockchain developers for the better user experience of the product. Before hiring an expert, ask how often they can communicate with you on the progress of a project. Ask what channel would they use for better communication.
• Check out approaches to project completion
  Understanding the approaches used by developers is also one of the significant factors for the success of your project. This factor fits the dedicated team of blockchain developers. In case you have planned to hire a team of blockchain developers, make sure to inquire whether they employ any development methodologies like agile or scrum.According to scrum methodology, the software is classified into sprints- bi-weekly development periods. It will allow you to share your thoughts with the team on the progress they are making.

Considering the points mentioned above will help you find the right blockchain talent. However, we have also come up with a list of questions to ask when interviewing blockchain developers.

What questions to ask when interviewing blockchain developers?

Here is a set of questions you should ask when interviewing blockchain developers:

• Which blockchain frameworks you have worked on?
• Do you have experience in public or permissioned blockchain?
• Which technology stack you will use to build a blockchain-based solution?
• How will you set up a development, testing, pre-release and production environment?
• How will you integrate our existing solution with the blockchain platform?
• How will you ensure the security of a blockchain solution?
• How to manage the DDoS attack on the private blockchain network?

Here is a list of the best blockchain development companies:

List of Individual/Freelance Blockchain Developers

We have searched the top individual blockchain developers on platforms, including Freelancer, Upwork and Toptal where you can find developers who can launch ICOs, create dApps and write and deploy smart contracts.

Based on their skills, experience and delivered blockchain projects, we have consolidated a list of few blockchain developers.

Following are some of the freelance blockchain specialist you can work with: