The Cyclical Law of the Web3 Recruitment Market: Reflections from Bubble to Value

Preface: The Journey from Traditional Finance to Web3

Looking back at the past three market cycles, I've noticed strikingly similar talent migration patterns during each bull market—the frenzied expansion on Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis, the emergence of Ethereum developers during the 2017 ICO craze, and the current explosion of decentralized application developers in the NFT market. At their core, these phenomena all represent capital-driven talent aggregation.

This reminds me of Wall Street post-2008 financial crisis—the same confusion, but different opportunities. As an investment banking consultant at the time, I witnessed countless cases of reckless expansion during bubbles leading to eventual collapse. Now standing at the turning point of 2023, observing the ups and downs of the decentralized finance market, I can't help but wonder: What strategic value lies behind this latest hiring frenzy?

Hiring Patterns Across Market Cycles: Lessons from History

From a strategic perspective, every Web3 market boom follows a similar hiring curve: initial scarcity driving high salaries (e.g., Bitcoin developers in 2014), mid-term platform expansion creating salary bubbles (Ethereum ecosystem in 2017), and eventual return to rational value investing (2019-2021 bear market). The current hiring frenzy at Opensea mirrors the ERC-20 token explosion of 2017!

Interestingly, each market peak reveals two distinct talent trends: "bubble chasers" purely pursuing trends and "foundation builders" establishing long-term technical moats. The former often dissipates when markets cool, while the latter survives and thrives during downturns. This pattern is particularly evident on platforms like Rarible—developers focused on smart contract security actually gain more institutional favor during bear markets.

NFT Market Hiring Ecosystem Analysis: Platform Competition and Talent Wars

Talent Attraction Matrix of Leading Platforms

• Opensea Hiring: Large-scale technical team expansion launched when daily trading volume surpassed $200 million, targeting three core roles: front-end developers, smart contract engineers, and UX designers
• Magic Eden Hiring: Renowned for digital art auction systems, heavily investing in NFT minting tool development with special focus on zero-knowledge proof talent
• LooksRare Hiring: Specializing in secondary market liquidity optimization, creating multiple chief scientist positions in algorithmic trading and on-chain data analysis
• Rarible Hiring: Emphasizing community governance, continuously recruiting top talent in DAO architecture design and governance mechanism development

Fundamentally, these platforms' talent strategies reflect Web3's developmental stages: Opensea represents standardized infrastructure building, Magic Eden embodies technological innovation, LooksRare signifies financial engineering, while Rarible symbolizes community democratization.

Decentralized Talent Economy Through Strategic Lens

This reminds me of two paradoxes during Ethereum's 2015-2016 development: projects aggressively poaching top developers to create "Ethereum killers," while technical talent dispersed across projects wasted resources. This pattern repeats in today's decentralized application ecosystem—developers serving multiple platforms simultaneously, creating a unique fluid talent economy.

From a value investing perspective, talent ROI in Web3 is undergoing fundamental changes. Early-stage bets on star projects once offered outsized returns like chasing Google's early talent in 2006, but now requires focus on teams' technical moat-building capabilities—similar to Blackstone's core investment philosophy of seeking durable advantages over short-term trends.

Beware Market Bubbles: Value Traps in Web3 Hiring

The current Opensea hiring frenzy obscures a reality: after two years of hypergrowth, Web3 faces severe role saturation and skill oversupply. This bubble recalls Bitcoin's 2014 peak when claims that "every programmer could earn thousands of coins daily" flooded the market with low-quality talent that quickly washed out.

From risk management perspective, job seekers should watch for three traps:

1. Skill Drift: Chasing trendy tech while neglecting foundational skills (e.g., Solidity programming, on-chain analytics)
2. Salary Illusion: Lured by short-term high pay while ignoring career sustainability (e.g., NFT projects offering $1M salaries without equity)
3. Project Bubbles: Blindly pursuing skyrocketing valuations without assessing long-term viability (see anonymous teams that rose and fell rapidly)

This reminds me of advising a startup in 2017: their valuation obsession overshadowed product moats. Now job seekers face similar challenges—how to identify truly valuable opportunities amidst chaos? The answer lies in value investing fundamentals: focus on problem-solving teams over superficial glamour.

Institutional Talent Strategies for NFT Ecosystems

Strategically, leading institutions show three shifts in decentralized application talent deployment:

• From Trend-Chasing to Moat-Building: Traditional finance giants (JPMorgan, BNY Mellon) enter Web3 not for NFT speculation but digital transformation capabilities
• From Poaching to Cultivating: Increased university-Web3 collaborations (e.g., Cornell Innovation Lab partnering with Magic Eden) creating talent pipelines
• From Single Points to Ecosystem Plays: Major players building cross-protocol talent networks (e.g., Microsoft supporting both Ethereum and Flow developers)

Notably, amid platforms like LooksRare, institutional strategies are shifting toward flexible project-based outsourcing over fixed hires—mirroring Silicon Valley VC models paying for milestones rather than headcount.

Building Sustainable Careers: Anti-AI Era Survival Guide

In AI-dominated talent markets, human advantages lie in historical perspective and value judgment—precisely what Web3 needs. Truly sustainable Web3 careers require three dimensions:

Technical Dimension: Irreplaceable Skill Stacks

• N-Level Security: Master at least two blockchain audit methods (EVM vulnerability detection, zk-proof verification)
• M-Level Standardization: Understand implementation of major smart contract standards (ERC-4337, ERC-725)
• P-Level Product Thinking: Design decentralized application UX frameworks grounded in real use cases

Business Dimension: Cycle-Navigating Judgment

• F-Level Financial Literacy: Grasp DeFi math (interest models, AMM mechanics) and basic on-chain analytics
• S-Level Strategic Vision: Analyze Web3's cyclical positioning and sector rotations
• G-Level Governance Awareness: Participate in DAO governance (proposal drafting, voting strategy analysis)

Personal Dimension: Anti-Inflation Strategies

1. Multichain Approach: Track multiple ecosystems (Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot) while maintaining skill diversity
2. Tech Stack Portfolio: Master core skills (Solidity) while learning complementary languages (Vyper, Move)
3. Credential System: Build multidimensional validation (certifications, open-source contributions, project experience)