source: Bitcoin News
2017. Jan. 02. 18:00
When most people think of bitcoin, they look at the price and its billion dollar market capitalization. However, bitcoin’s ecosystem is bigger than most people can imagine with its constellation of significantly growing micro-economies.
Since bitcoin’s inception over the years, the cryptocurrency has created a massive economy of people who work directly with this protocol every day. This includes miners, software developers, startups, artists and writers, and many more groups and individuals who help build this infrastructure every day.
Also read: Meet Tumblebit: The Unlinkable Payment Hub
Miners
Bitcoin has created a growing industry within its mining sector. This includes individuals and organizations who are mining the currency daily and securing the network at the same time. Moreover, there have been companies created that manufacture mining devices, ASIC chips, and more, creating a very competitive industry. Mining has grown exponentially over the years as technology has progressed. New improvements in ASIC hardware and the creation of mining pools have built a robust economy within the bitcoin community. Due to its technical aspects mining is still a niche market, but is expected to grow significantly in the future.
Software Developers
Even beyond the bitcoin space, the need for software developers is in high demand. Yet as the cryptocurrency grows more popular, the network is creating lots of jobs for programmers dedicated to blockchain and digital currency technology. Many companies and promising startups are looking for software developers to help build code that is focused on the bitcoin protocol. While searching job sites like Monster and Indeed, the most prominent jobs needed in this space are blockchain programmers who understand bitcoin. The economy of developers bitcoin has created will likely increase vastly over time as this type of work will constantly be needed.
Digital Currency and Blockchain-Based Startups
As bitcoin has grown, many new companies have appeared aimed at harnessing this technology. Over the past few years alone there have been a plethora of startups building businesses with all kinds of unique ideas. Companies focused on bitcoin-based remittances, payment processors, bill payment solutions, atm manufacturers, hardware production, and many more types of businesses. Many of these startups are creating businesses modern society has never really experienced before until bitcoin came along. Exchanges, marketplaces, distributed autonomous organizations, prediction markets, and more that are truly peer-to-peer and decentralized. Cryptocurrency and blockchain focused startups are sure to continue with quite a few of them failing and some becoming very successful.
Art, Network Marketing and Writing
Bitcoin’s economy has also given life to graphic artists, marketers, and writers. The industry surrounding the bitcoin environment needs people to create written descriptions, advertisements, and graphic visuals to help spread adoption. Since bitcoin was created, it has seen an abundance of occupations in these fields. Graphic artists have created visuals that help portray this technology in a different manner. Meanwhile, freelance writers have found employment from cryptocurrency news outlets and blogs. These types of marketing jobs are a part of a commercial trade that is mainly focused on the bitcoin protocol, community, and the technology’s branched solutions.
A Multitude of Occupations and an Emphasis on Security
Other occupations that fill the bitcoin economy include consultants, accountants, human resources, risk managers and more. Moreover, people often turn to advisors for help to grasp these emerging technologies. This brings the need for consultants teaching people about the industry, software, and the risks and benefits of these protocols.
Another significant market growing within the bitcoin environment is the security sector. Cyber security and creating new methods to secure digital assets will always be needed. Improvements in technology and malicious hacks like ransomware continue to prime the online security sector. This bolsters more individuals and groups working on improving multi-factor authentication, biometrics, threshhold signatures and many more concepts of heightened security. The bitcoin protocol has created a robust system of transferring wealth without a third party but security solutions will constantly need improvement.
There are important micro-economies tethered to the bitcoin environment. As bitcoin continues to gain mainstream adoption and reaches critical mass, these smaller economies will swell indefinitely. Additionally, the bitcoin constellation of economies should continue to branch out with more participatory opportunities for individuals and groups.
Watching bitcoin grow in its earliest phases is very reminiscent to the birth of the internet era. As time gradually continues, bitcoin’s changes to society may become more subtle but watching these micro-economies multiply has shown things are changing fast.
What do you think about the micro-economies that surround the bitcoin environment? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Pixabay.
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