Becoming an Engineer in the Crypto Space

Engineers in the Blockchain Space

Working with the blockchain is novel, exciting, and oftentimes very rewarding. Technology in the space moves fast, requires innovation, and brings the best out of engineers. But the reality of the situation is that there is a shortage of engineers with Web3 experience.

Good engineers are a dime in a dozen these days. But good engineers who understand crypto are still a diamond in the rough. If you want to breakthrough and get a job in the blockchain space you need to understand the core fundamentals, gain real‑world experience, and put yourself in the right positions. This guide should help you.

Learn the Basics

The first thing you need to do is learn the basics about the blockchain. How it works, the different chains that exist, and ultimately, find one that interests you. They all have their differences, and if you can find one that speaks to you start digging into it. I’d recommend picking a chain with a big community and with lots of opportunity.

Once you’ve picked a chain, your job is to learn the languages, tools, and frameworks of that chain. For the rest of the guide I will talk specifically about the Solana blockchain, but you should be able to apply this model to any other blockchain. Just keep in mind, the systems, the design patterns, and the technologies in crypto are niche. You need to do your best to learn them before applying for a job.

Popular Tech in Solana

Solana is an interesting blockchain. It is written in Rust, and therefore a lot of the native tooling for Solana is in Rust as well. These are the tools you need to be successful as an engineer in the Solana blockchain:

Languages: Rust and Javascript (there is a great Web3 library for JS).

Understand the basics of Solana: Programs, ATA, SPL, IDL, and any other technical jargon you run into that you don’t know.

Popular protocols: Jupiter, Orca, MarginFi, Kamino—Learn about the popular on‑chain applications that make the space what it is.

Oracle: Switchboard, Pyth—Learn about getting off‑chain data on‑chain.

Popular tools and Frameworks: Carbon, Dune, Surfpool, Anchor, and Pinocchio.

This is a shortlist, as you get more more familiar with the Solana ecosystem, you will run into unknowns and questions. It your job to learn them.

Provide Value

Once you have a good footing on the technology, the next step is to contribute to open source projects. Find ones that accept and encourage contributors and have an active network and ecosystem. Don’t waste your time on projects that don’t have good communication or do development internally.

You also want to look for projects that are built and backed by businesses. When you contribute to these projects you get to know the engineers, understand the business, and from there you can figure out other ways to be helpful to that business. This can be beyond contributing open‑source code; it can be finding datasets they need, creating competitor analysis reports, building Dune dashboards for them, and much more.

Your job is to find businesses in the crypto space that you can start being helpful for. With AI, its never been easier to get up to speed on a codebase and start helping out. Your job now is to be active and useful. If you do this right, you won’t have to apply and hope for a job interview. When these companies are hiring you will be on the short list. Why wouldn’t they want to hire someone who already understands their technologies, has already worked with the team, and has already proven themselves. That is a safe bet, and your job is to minimize the risk for the hiring manager.

Be Unorthodox

Don’t simply throw up PR’s for open source projects, find unique and creative ways to be useful.

• Talk to engineers from different web3 companies. Ask them what data they are missing and wish they had. Then go get that data, build a data pipeline, and either give it to them, sell it to them, or work it into a job interview.
• Use either your own data sets, public data sets from Dune or other sources, and create dashboards, monitors, or first/second derivative data sets for this company. Feel free to use all of this to generate reports and make them public.
• Create a public profile; Crypto Twitter (CT) is very active. Create an account, follow popular people, and engage with them. When you contribute to open‑source projects, build dashboards, curate new data sets, blast it on social media, and tell employees of companies that would be interested about it. Be active.

Applying for A Job

Once you’ve applied yourself, it will become much easier applying for a job. You’ll know engineers in the space, hopefully from many different companies. Chance are that some of those companies will be looking to hire at some point. Feel free to mention to the engineers you’ve been collaborating with that you’re looking for your next role.

If you find a job posting that you think you’d be a good fit for but don’t know anyone there, look throughout your network and see if someone knows the hiring manager. Crypto is a small space when it comes to builders and developers. Feel free to ask one of your connects for a referal, more often than not people will be happy to help.

Your job is to be helpful and put yourself in good positions. Make it easy for someone you’ve collaborated with to say “Person A is great, he’s been so helpful over the last few weeks, not just in coding but finding data sets, asking the right questions, and making an impact on our project. They would be a great fit for this role, would you mind taking a personal look at their resume?”

This path is a lot harder than spamming 1000 job application a week. But it will 10x the likelihood of you landing a job. People are tentative about hiring engineers and hoping that they will “prove themselves on the job and be quick learners.” Hiring is a risk. Do everything you can to minimize the risk for the hiring manager and make it as easy as possible for them to hire you.

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AI Generated Learning Resources

Here’s a curated list of up-to-date, reputable articles you can use to get started with each foundational area mentioned in your piece. Every link below was added by AI to help readers learn quickly, build confidence, and start contributing to Web3 and Solana ecosystems.

Blockchain Basics

Perfect for absolute beginners — explains what blockchain is, how transactions work, and why it matters across industries:

• “What Is Blockchain? The Beginner’s Guide” (BitDegree) – A clear, accessible overview of blockchain mechanics and real-world applications. (BitDegree)
• “Master Blockchain Basics: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide” (Algorithm‑Man) – Simplifies concepts like consensus, cryptography, and use cases in industry. (Algorithm Man)

Solana Basics

Covers Solana fundamentals, how its network operates, the architecture, and how to get started quickly:

• “Getting Started with Solana” (Solana Foundation) – Official docs explaining Solana’s design goals, transaction speed, low fees, and real-time staking/NFT/DeFi apps. (CryptoPotato)
• “Getting Started with Solana: A Beginner‑Friendly Guide” (DEV Community, June 2025) – A hands-on introduction for devs and non-developers: speed, use cases, and early building tips. (DEV Community)

Learning Rust (via the Rust Cookbook)

Clear, focused examples to help developers gain practical experience in Rust — ideal for Web3 engineers working on Solana:

• “Rust Cookbook” (official project) – Organized Rust recipes for common programming tasks: file I/O, HTTP, concurrency, cryptography, data structures, and more. (rust-lang-nursery.github.io, rust-lang-nursery.github.io)
• Supplementary: “The Rust Programming Language” (a.k.a The Rust Book) – Excellent guided tutorial on Rust fundamentals, available from the official site. (Rust Documentation)

Benefits of Solana & Popular Projects

Insights into why Solana stands out (speed/low cost/scale) plus an overview of leading apps in the space — perfect for contextualizing its ecosystem:

• “Solana Ecosystem: A Comprehensive Overview of Key Projects and Partnerships” (2025 update) – Breakdown of network architecture, performance stats, and fast‑growing DEXes, NFT marketplaces, DeFi protocols, and gamechains. (CryptoPotato)
• “10 Best Solana Projects in 2025” (CryptoPotato) – Deep dive into live Solana apps like Phantom, Orca, Kamino, Marinade, Magic Eden, Render Network, and Helium, explaining adoption, innovation areas, and why they’re popular. (CryptoPotato)