Ben Strack

The share of US-based blockchain developers is shrinking, according to a recent study, though the country has a chance to regain a lead as an upcoming boom of such jobs is expected over the next decade. 



The US has lost 2% of its share of the blockchain developer market per year for the last five years — sinking to 29% market share, venture capital firm Electric Capital found.



Europe is also currently home to 29% of blockchain developers, the data shows, while Asia accounts for 13%.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The number of active open source software engineers grew to 23,343 by the end of 2022, according to Electric Capital, despite crypto prices declining. The <a href="https://www.developerreport.com/developer-report-geography" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> estimates that ​​one million new blockchain-related open-source developer jobs could be created by 2030, giving the US a chance to catch up. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="2400" height="1320" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-50544" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=2400 2400w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain2.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The USA&#8217;s blockchain developer share has shrunk 2% per year since 2017, according to Electric Capital</figcaption></figure>



Regulatory clarity could go a long way to attracting a chunk of that talent, though some industry participants have said they aren’t particularly optimistic. In the absence of a comprehensive crypto framework, the SEC and CFTC have launched enforcement actions against crypto companies and executives in recent months, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/binance-cftc-damning-quotes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">including Binance</a>.



“Providing clear and supportive regulations for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries will encourage more innovation and foster growth within the country,” the report states. “This will make the US an attractive destination for both new and established developers.”



Coinbase, an industry player <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-serves-coinbase-in-latest-alleged-crypto-securities-violation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the SEC has targeted</a> recently, said in a blog post Wednesday that “regulation by enforcement” in the US was indeed pushing tech innovation to other parts of the world. 



CEO Brian Armstrong said the company would be “happy to go to court” if necessary to offer some clarity to the industry.&nbsp;



“The US is now losing market share to regions with more regulatory clarity and openness to crypto innovation like Europe and Asia, as well as emerging markets like LATAM, India, and Africa,” the crypto exchange’s <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/blog/new-report-shows-1m-tech-jobs-at-stake-in-us-crypto-policy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a> post states.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="2403" height="1335" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-50548" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=2403 2403w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/braindrain3.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2403px) 100vw, 2403px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Where will the next million Web3 developers go?</figcaption></figure>



While the US, Europe and Asia have the most blockchain developers, India’s share of such professionals has grown more consistently — from 2% in 2017 to 6% in 2022.



“Still the United States has amazing builders, but then India is another ecosystem that is coming on line in the last couple of months and years in a really really big way,” said Ruben Amenyogbo, head of partnerships for Protocol Labs.



Ukraine has been a standout European country in terms of growth, as its share of blockchain developers rose 2% in the last three years.&nbsp;



Macaulay Peterson contributed reporting. 



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US Losing Ground on Blockchain Developer Share: Study

Macauley Peterson

Ethereum has a new scaling solution reaching public mainnet, going live Friday. ZkSync’s EVM-compatible zero-knowledge proof-based rollup is open to the public from 10:00 am ET.



The zkEVM, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/matter-labs-rebrands-zkevm">rebranded to zkSync Era</a> last month, has been open to developers-only <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-sharpens-role-ethereum-200m-funding">since October 2022</a>. But now the proverbial training wheels are coming off and the public will have their first chance to interact with dapps on the platform.



ZkSync Era was previously known as zkSync 2.0, and its 1.0 cousin, launched by developer Matter Labs in December 2020, remains live as zkSync Lite.



A rival zkEVM from Polygon was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-zkevm-beta-live-on-ethereum">announced in mid-February</a> and its equivalent offering, which the team calls “Mainnet Beta,” is expected to go live on Monday, March 27.



So, the zkSync folks can lay claim to being “the world’s first zkEVM mainnet,” if only by a weekend.



Matter Labs’ co-founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski told Blockworks the timing is coincidental, and Era’s alpha launch milestone is arriving right on schedule, following the completion of a second public <a href="http://code4rena.com/contests/2023-03-zksync-era-system-contracts-contest">security contest</a> via Code4rena.



“Now we feel completely safe to launch,” Gluchowski said, stressing that the testing of the product has been extensive.



The developers spent $3.8 million on testing and auditing, according to a statement shared with Blockworks, including seven independent security audits — <a href="https://blog.openzeppelin.com/zksync-layer-1-audit/">one</a> with leading auditor OpenZeppelin — and an open-ended bug bounty program <a href="https://immunefi.com/bounty/zksyncera/">with Immunefi</a>.



“You really need this layered approach to security,” Gluchowski said, adding, “Now we feel comfortable, but I mean it’s still Alpha — people have to understand it’s still brand new technology.”



He pointed to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/euler-bounty-defi-flash-loan-attack">recent exploit of Euler Finance</a>, whose smart contracts were audited by a reputable firm and were live for the better part of a year, as an example of how audits alone aren’t enough.



The combination of external and internal audits, public security contests and bug bounties and a developer gated release, Gluchowki thinks should be industry standard practice.



The zkSync Era code is also fully <a href="https://github.com/matter-labs/zksync-era">open-source</a>, including the prover, which the team <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-sharpens-role-ethereum-200m-funding">sees as a competitive differentiator</a>.



“We open-sourced everything the moment we opened the network to developers — as we promised — under a permissive MIT Apache 2 License,” Gluchowski said, explaining the rationale is that they “believe it’s fundamental to crypto have the code open-source and forkable, because that’s tied to the ethos and values of Ethereum.”



Another key feature is native <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-are-smart-contract-wallets">account abstraction</a>, which will allow Era users to pay transaction fees in any token or even let dapp developers pay users’ fees.



<h2>Looking forward: Decentralization</h2>



There remain guardrails in place, such as a delay period for withdrawals, initially set to 24 hours, but which will be reduced gradually, Gluchowski said.



“In the initial phase, we will be still running the sequencer [and] we have the right to upgrade the contracts — it’s not yet fully decentralized,” he said.



The plan is to follow a similar approach to that of zkSync Lite, which has a <a href="https://blog.matter-labs.io/security-council-2-0-2337a555f17a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">security council</a> that supervises protocol upgrades.



“We can’t guarantee that there are no problems, we encourage people to experiment slowly,” Gluchowski said.



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ZkSync’s zkEVM ‘Era’ Opens to the Public

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61f7ed2931b78" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“Meta joining COPA means crypto is not a niche,” Max Sills, general manager at COPA, told Blockworks. “It’s a technology that will be depended on by every industry&#8221;</li>
 <li>The non-profit community was founded by Block, formerly Square, Inc. and consists of over 30 members, including MicroStrategy, Kraken, Uniswap, Chaincode Labs and OKCoin</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>





Meta, formerly known as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/zuckerberg-says-facebooks-new-name-will-be-meta/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook</a>, has joined a nonprofit community focused on making digital assets open-source in big tech’s latest move into the crypto ecosystem. 



The social media platform joined the board of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which is working to assemble a pool of crypto patents that all members can use in an effort to encourage innovation.&nbsp;



“Meta joining COPA means crypto is not a niche,” Max Sills, general manager at COPA and counsel at Square, told Blockworks. “It’s a technology that will be depended on by every industry.”



Through COPA, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/facebook-parent-meta-reverses-crypto-ad-ban/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta</a> pledged to not enforce its core cryptocurrency patents against any individual or company, except for “defensive reasons.” This effectively makes its patents freely available for all to use. 



Some of those patents include Meta’s technology that enables the creation, mining, storage, transmission, settlement, integrity or security of cryptocurrencies, Sills said. 



The non-profit community was founded by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/jack-dorseys-square-to-change-its-name-to-block/">Block</a>, formerly Square, Inc., and consists of over 30 members, including <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/microstrategy-buys-1900-more-bitcoins/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MicroStrategy</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/kraken-acquires-staking-platform-staked/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kraken</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=uniswap#:~:text=Uniswap%20Delegates%20Consider%20Liquidity%20Mining%20to%20Kickstart%20Ethereum%20Layer%2D2%20Adoption" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uniswap</a>, Chaincode Labs and OKCoin.



Meta representative Shayne O’Reilly, who manages the company’s licensing and transaction group, will join board members from Block and Coinbase. It’s not known who the representative for both companies is.&nbsp;



Overtime, the board will be governed by a board of nine members: three members from crypto companies and six members from other companies.



COPA is a cross-industry effort with a mission of uniting large technology companies like Meta, with financial services organizations, government agencies, crypto-native companies and others to protect crypto innovation.



“Crypto technologies are a public commons that eventually everyone in the world will depend on for transacting value,” Sills said. “Protecting that commons is paramount to its development.”&nbsp;



Here’s how it works: members pool their crypto patents together to form what the organization calls a “shared patent library.” Any member is then free to use the technology behind a patent.&nbsp;



Over the next 12 months, COPA will continue to outreach to big tech, banks and payments companies, Sills said.



“COPA’s goals over time are to double down on minimizing [intellectual property] risk in cryptocurrency, and create more patent protection for our members,” Sills said. 



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