Leaving Tech for Crypto: Where to Work in Web3
Leaving Tech for Crypto: Where to Work in Web3
Introduction
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series about Why to Move Into Web3, How to Move Into Web3, and Where to Move Into Web3. Follow me on Twitter @0xShah and tweet at or send me a DM to say hello!
Web3 is here. NFTs, DeFi, DAOs. Big brands like Nike and Pepsi, celebrities like Jay-Z and Reese Witherspoon, and everyone's grandmother at Thanksgiving dinner wanted to know more about crypto. As we head into 2022, maybe you're thinking "Should I get a job in Web3? Where should I work? What would I do? How do I get started?"
As a brief reminder, I believe Web3 is important because it transfers the creation, ownership, and governance of Internet technologies from centralized corporations to decentralized but coordinated individuals. This yields better socioeconomic results in my view. Most people contribute to the world in spare time, board seats, or through donations; this is an opportunity to fully contribute to building a better long-term version of the Internet. For me, that was about joining Alchemy to help bring blockchain to a billion people through infrastructure; we're hiring.
This is not financial advice. Do your own research. I will update this periodically based on feedback and new information. These are my personal opinions; not that of my employer or anyone else. If anything is incorrect or can be improved, please let me know.
I previously wrote about why to work in Web3, and how to work in Web3. This post is about where to work in Web3 to demystify the landscape.
Summary: The Web3 Landscape
In short, you can either work on infrastructure or applications. Infrastructure would be an actual protocol with a growing ecosystem; an application could be a Web3 wallet for using dapps and staking tokens. One is a foundation, one is an experience.
Layer 1 Protocols: The blockchain
Layer 2 Protocols: The scaling solutions (mostly for Ethereum)
DAOs: Decentralized autonomous organizations
Centralized Exchanges (CEX): Buy, sell, and hold cryptoassets
Decentralized Exchanges (DEX): Buy, sell, and hold cryptoassets with no centralized control
Wallets: The consumer gateway to assets, dapps, and protocols
NFT Marketplaces: Mint, sell, collect, and socialize around NFTs
NFT Projects: Bringing the technology and community around an NFT concept to life
Gaming: Play-to-earn and other ways to incorporate NFTs and other tokens into games
Blockchain Education and Onboarding: Educating Internet users about DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs
Infrastructure: APIs and Oracles - power the ecosystem
Investors: Deploying capital and executing research to help grow the ecosystem
Additional teams
Layer 1 Protocols
Recommended if interested in core technology infrastructure and ecosystems across DeFi/NFTs/DAOs
Ethereum Foundation (Ethereum) | Contribute | Careers
Unlike alternative layer one protocols, Ethereum doesn't have a centralized team driving it
This means that there's not an economically-motivated group focused on recruiting the best talent
Yet the Ethereum Foundation does an incredible amount of public goods work to fuel the ecosystem
As of December 2021, they were hiring administrative assistants and a product designer but presumably if you are a capable, motivated developer you have a lot to contribute here (Source)
Recommendation: If you are technical and believe in Ethereum, this is a highly respected team to join
Solana Labs (Solana) | Solana Labs Careers | Ecosystem Jobs
Solana is considered the biggest competitor to Ethereum, with lower fees and faster speed
However, some fear centralization with fewer validators and its Proof of History mechanism
Many developers are starting to use Solana as an alternative to build more usable products
More than 1M people have used Phantom, its ecosystem's leading wallet, suggesting growth potential
Recommendation: If you want to work on an actual blockchain with the most traction towards being a complement or replacement to Ethereum, Solana currently presents that opportunity
Terraform Labs (Terra) | Careers
Terra is focused on a stablecoin ecosystem ($UST) that it believes is critical to a functioning Web3
It is deploying a $150M ecosystem fund to foster development beyond its current 100+ applications
The team is primarily hiring for engineers and business development roles between Korea and the US
Recommendation: If you believe in Terra's underlying approach to stablecoins and are excited by the real world adoption they have seen in Asia to date, Terra is an opportunity to drive an L1 ecosystem
Ava Labs (Avalanche) | Careers
Focused on financial use cases and asset digitization, Avalanche is another high-growth Layer 1
The leadership team has a mix of highly respected computer scientists and finance industry execs
To date, Ava Labs has created Avalanche and Ryval, the stock market of litigating financing
Based in NY with a global team, Ava Labs is hiring across engineering, BD, product, marketing
Recommendation: If you are passionate specifically about finance, and want to intersect that with a team building a protocol and actual products to push DeFi forward, Ava Labs is a unique opportunity
NEAR Foundation (NEAR) | Careers
Cofounded by brilliant technical leaders from Google and MemSQL, NEAR is a carbon-neutral L1
NEAR announced an $800M ecosystem fund, integrated with Chainlink and The Graph, and more
Recommended: If you want to support an L1 with industry-leading technology that has already implemented a lot of the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap (e.g. sharding), NEAR is a growing ecosystem
Fantom (FTM) | Careers
Fantom has 80+ dapps built in its ecosystem across DEXes, bridges, lending, yield, NFTs, and more
Like most other Layer 1s, Fantom promises speed, lower cost, and environmental-friendliness (PoS)
Right now Fantom only has 1 open role for a blockchain developer listed but likely more in reality
Recommendation: If you like the technology and its ecosystem specifically, it's worth exploring
Binance Smart Chain (see Binance / Binance.US) | Binance Careers
Binance is one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, so this is a chance to work at the protocol level
BSC was originally a fork of go-ethereum (Geth) but now evolved into its own distinct chain
BSC has been criticized for being significantly centralized as it is primarily developed by one company and has just 21 active validators, which is less than Ethereum and most other competing L1s
BSC announced a $1B ecosystem fund across liquidity incentives, incubations, talent, and investments
Recommendation: If you believe in Binance's vision and strategy, primarily as an exchange, but now want to work on an actual blockchain technology and ecosystem of dapps, BSC could be worth a look
Layer 2 Solutions
Recommended if you are deeply passionate about the scaling problem facing Ethereum
Offchain Labs / Arbitrum | Careers
Led by a founding team from Princeton with academic origins dating back to 2013
In Q4'2021, announced an important upgrade Arbitrum Nitro that will deliver a 20-50X speed increase
Recommendation: Best if you're highly technical and interested in scaling Ethereum
Optimism | Careers
Similar to Arbitrum, it's a rollup that stores transactions on the Ethereum L1 and uses fraud proofs
Differs in technical implementation of the specific fraud proofs; learn more here
Recommendation: Best if you're highly technical and interested in scaling Ethereum
Polygon | Careers
"Ethereum's Internet of Blockchain: a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks."
Solutions (Non-Exhaustive): Polygon SDK, Polygon PoS, Polygon Hermez (zk-Rollup)
Learn from this Bankless interview (November 2021) about Polygon's growth and Ethereum's challenge
Recommendation: Best if interested in variety of Ethereum's scaling solutions
zkSync (Matter Labs) | Careers
An alternative to optimistic rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism, zkSyncs boast 10m vs. 2 week exit time
Compared to other ZK rollups SNARK based or STARK based, this solution is EVM compatible
Recommendation: Best if interested in this specifical technical implementation to Ethereum scaling
Starkware | Careers
Responsible for StarkEx, a permissioned Validity-Rollup, and StarkNet, a permissionless ZK-Rollup
Differs from optimistic rollups that rely on validators by relying on cryptography instead
Claims the mosts transactions ($50M) and volume ($200B) across all L2s
Recommendation: Best if interested in STARK (Scalable, Transparent, Argument of Knowledge)
Immutable X | Careers
Layer 2 Solution for NFTs specifically. Powers Gods Unchained game. Based in Australia.
2 primary products: Immutable X (exchange protocol) and Mint (NFT minting). Powered by Starkware.
Recommendation: Best if interested in NFTs and keen to work on a scaling technology.
DAOs
Recommended if you want a more flexible work option and want to be on the cutting-edge of crypto communities
FWB (Friends with Benefits) | Careers
FWB is a DAO focused on culture and crypto through community, art, live events, and more
a16z invested $10M into FWB at a $100M valuation in October 2021
Open roles include a diverse set of options including a treasury lead, contributor relations, and more
Recommendation: Best if interested in cutting-edge culture and flexibly contributing to a DAO
Developer DAO | Discord
Started by Nader Dabit, a well-known Web3 developer relations leader and influencer
This has quickly become the pre-eminent community for technical contributors to Web3 with a forthcoming token launch and community growth
Recommendation: If you are interested in blockchain engineering and building products, Developer DAO is a chance to connect with other like-minded individuals and build community
she256 (non-profit) | Careers | Ecosystem Jobs
Increasing diversity in the blockchain space
Looking for a general counsel and fellows
Recommendation: If you are passionate about diversity and want to help shape how blockchain grows
More: Ethereum Foundation-endorsed DAOs, Cryptocurrency Jobs: DAOs
Centralized Exchanges (CEX)
Recommended if you're interested in cryptocurrency trading or breadth of a centralized crypto conglomerate (NFTs, DeFi, etc.)
Coinbase | Careers
$60B+ market cap, public company
Run by one of the most highly regarded leadership teams in tech
Learn the ropes of crypto at a Web2-ish centralized company
Get to have exposure to an exchange, NFT marketplace, wallet, etc.
Recommendation: Best if seeking breadth, public company dynamics and culture, and risk-mitigation
Binance | Careers
$300B market cap, private company
Market leadership with $76B in volume per day; highly visible and controversial leader with CZ Peng
Opportunity to work at an exchange that also has a fast-growing L1 protocol in Binance Smart Chain
Has faced more regulatory scrutiny than average blue chip international centralized exchange
Lots of new developments like the recent $200M gaming fund between Binance and Animoca Brands
Recommendation: Best if seeking riskier, more aggressive, more international culture and vision
FTX | Careers
$32B+ market cap, private company
Led by SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried), a more forward-looking, bold, candid industry executive
Recommendation: Best if seeking hypergrowth, trading-oriented environment with ties to Solana
More: Bittrex, Crypto.com, Gate.io, Gemini, Kraken, Okcoin, and many more
Note: Most crypto exchanges are in the process of becoming crypto conglomerates, adding NFT marketplaces, providing financial service products like lending and borrowing, blockchain education, more.
Decentralized Exchanges (DEX)
Recommended if you're interested in cryptocurrency trading but don't want to work for a big/centralized company
Uniswap Labs | Careers
Creators of the Uniswap Protocol, responsible for more than $678B in volume to date
One of the most popular DEXs, often doing more volume than most of the centralized exchanges
Facing scrutiny from regulators according to The Wall Street Journal like much of DeFi
Recommendation: Best if interested in exchanges, automated market makers, and decentralization
Sushiswap | Discord
Initially purely a fork of Uniswap's code that launched in August 2020 and lured many Uniswap users by offering its own native token $SUSHI, it has now evolved into a hub for DeFi activity with more products
In Q4 2021, public reports documented significant internal turmoil leading to the CTO's resignation
Recommendation: Best if interested in breadth of DeFi products and ability to support the restructuring
dYdX | Careers
Focused on a specific type of trading called perpetual swaps; less for casual token swapping
Led by former Coinbase employee Antonio Juliano, founded in 2016
Briefly surpassed Coinbase Exchange when dYdX did nearly $4B in 24h trading volume in September
Recommendary: Best if interested in crypto derivatives and leveraging the DAO to grow an ecosystem
More: 1inch Exchange, Deversifi, and many more including Trader Joe (Avalanche) and Raydium (Solana)
Wallets
NFT Marketplaces
NFT Collections
Larva Labs (Crypto Punks) | About
Pixel Vault (PUNKS Comic) | Email
Yuga Labs (Bored Apes) | Website
Group Behind World of Women | Website
More: Pudgy Penguins, Cool Cats
Gaming
Axie Infinity | Sky Mavis Jobs
Animoca Brands | Careers
Yield Guild Games | Careers
Virtually Human Studios | Careers
Education
Rabbithole | Careers
"Earn crypto by learning and using the latest crypto applications on web3"
Compelling value proposition for projects seeking users and contributors; easy way for people new to Web3 to discover projects and learn how to engage with them and onboard into Web3
Hiring engineers, PM, designer, and business development
Recommendation: If you're keen to help more people learn how to use Web3 and work with a wide array of projects, Rabbithole is an early leader in the space for doing so
Layer3.xyz | Careers
"Earn crypto by doing…[things]"
Projects can create bounties for discrete tasks (e.g. "Translate the Olympus Pro documentation")
Hiring community manager, developer, product designer
Recommendation: If you want to help create projects for people to complete and create a way for DAOs to get quality work done in a decentralized, incentivized manner, this is worth exploring
Infrastructure
Investors
a16z | See Portfolio
Alchemy Ventures | See Portfolio
Coinbase Ventures | See Portfolio
Dragonfly Capital | See Portfolio
Electric Capital | See Portfolio
Fabric Ventures | See Portfolio
Framework Ventures | See Portfolio
Pantera Capital | See Portfolio
Paradigm | See Portfolio
Variant Fund | See Portfolio
Additional Teams
Alchemy: Leading Blockchain Development Platform
Celo: Global, Mobile-Focused Blockchain
Circle: USDC, Financial Services
Compound: DeFi Protocol
Galaxy Digital/BitGo
Goldfinch: Emerging Market Lending
Syndicate: Investing as a DAO
Moonpay: Fiat On-Ramps Into Crypto
Paysail: Invoicing
PleasrDAO: Leading culture and art-focused DAO
Dapper Labs: Flow, NBA Top Shot and NFT Everything
OpenZeppelin: Smart Contract Security
Paxos: Digital Assets
XMTP: Messaging
Zapper: DeFi Portfolio and More
Zerion: DeFi Portfolio and More
Thanks! Good luck on your Web3 journey.
DM me or follow me on Twitter @0xShah if I can be helpful.