As we enter the era of Web3 that yielded an uptick in financial technology developments, many opportunities have arisen. However, along with this rise comes its associated potential threats. Such risks emphasise the importance of adopting better cybersecurity solutions to further ease and protect digital transactions at scale, especially in the cryptocurrency space.

To discuss the matter, e27 sits with Ze Chong Tan, Chief Strategy Officer at UKISS Technology, a tech firm specialising in blockchain solutions, network security, file encryption, identity authentication, and crypto wallets.

A closer look at cybersecurity with Ze Chong Tan of UKISS Technology

As a veteran in the cybersecurity space with over 30 years of experience in the cybersecurity and tech spaces, Tan shared a look back at his career beginnings in IT. It was at the time of the first dot-com boom in the Southeast Asian region where he was working in the connectivity provider and distributed server solutions industry. He then became part of the National Computer Board and NETS to create the first Public Certificate Authority (CA) in the Southeast Asian region.

Also read: RareSkills to help Web3 engineers harness their potential

“Security considerations played a significant role in the growth of the internet, and identifying and authenticating users coming to websites was the first purpose of setting up the Public CA. In a way, it was SingPass 1.0.,” explained Tan. “I was fortunate to participate in driving that development as public key infrastructure (PKI) was still an evolving standard at the time. Today, the mass proliferation of public key cryptography has created whole cybersecurity industries, with technologies like SSL, TLS, VPN, Symmetric/Asymmetric Encryption, and eventually, blockchain,” Tan added.

Fast forward to today, digital businesses transitioning their operations of running digital transactions from on-premise set-ups to the cloud have paved the way to more relevant cybersecurity solutions that adapt to this new web infrastructure, especially in Web3.

How UKISS Technology was founded

The need for a more robust cybersecurity system also applies to consumers, where the risk of preventing bad actors from entering these networks increases as the information is now online and data assets are no longer locked with a simple perimeter. This was the premise of how UKISS Technology was founded: to address the pain points of Web3 users by creating a haven to protect the entire life cycle of their private keys. 

“In Web3, private and public key cryptography forms the basis of all transactions. It is a world where the proof of ownership of the private key is central to enabling things to happen. This nature of Web3 security caused crypto owners a lot of pain when they lost access to their wallets, had their wallets hacked, or were conned into disclosing their private keys. We want to empower users to engage and navigate the decentralised world of Web3 easily and safely”, Tan shared.

Also read: Is “teleporting” between workspaces truly possible?

Tan has pioneered blockchain developments in Singapore and has played a significant role in creating Singapore’s first public Certificate Authority and the region’s earlier B2B digital payment solutions. In the advent of cloud computing, Tan shared further about the ramifications of how cybersecurity is delivered.

“Hybrid and complex connectivity meant it took a lot of work to guard gateways. Cybersecurity then evolved to take on a Zero Trust approach, which deemed any connection coming in or out of a machine hostile until proven otherwise. Blockchain technology provides an evolutionary public/private key mechanism that is effective and has widespread potential to enable trust in Zero Trust environments. UKISS Technology believes in bringing our users to a world where they are protected when providing proof to Web3 services. We’re engineering our solutions with the best security technology for the masses,” Tan explained.

Forging a path towards a more secure future

As global standards for cybersecurity solutions evolve with emerging needs and contexts, the industry is expanding its adoption of Decentralised Identifiers (DID), decentralised validation, and authentication, among others.

In this field, Tan foresees more structures of trust in the internet, delivered through the language of blockchain. “We have seen pandemic travellers producing health or vaccine certificates to prove they have been vaccinated or have not contracted COVID-19. The certificate, or some would call it Health Passport, is a form of Verifiable Credential. It is a Web3 application that leverages the certificate issuer’s DID for verification purposes. I believe trust in online documentation can be established quickly for the masses. I also foresee mainstream financial systems adopting blockchain ledgers to provide immutable evidence, just as we have seen in the crypto world,” Tan cited as an example.

Also read: The Big Leap roadshow kickstarts in Jakarta with a panel on the Gen Z market

Looking further ahead, this new way of digital exchange emphasises the imperative to build solutions that forge trust among actors on the web. This presents a challenge in cybersecurity, given the lack of trust in centralised systems and the concentration of critical data for financial gains. On the other hand, this also presents an opportunity to build a more robust infrastructure around transactions in the decentralised financial processing space. 

“Data and hacks could happen, and threats from outside and within centralised data institutions and financial exchanges will be palpable. To counter such threats, enhancing system resilience by decentralising data and security control will become more realistic,” Tan elaborated.

“Technology vendors should strive to break this cycle by establishing fundamental trust in all connections on the internet. Pushing for Web3 is one such way. I wish to see UKISS Technology providing the best and simplest Web3 tools for the masses. You do not need to be a crypto native to access the best protection of your assets and data,” he remarked.

For more information on UKISS Technology and its pioneering cybersecurity solutions, visit their official page.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by UKISS Technology

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Tiger Global-backed Ula lays off 134 employees
It is about 23% of its workforce; The B2B e-commerce marketplace cited market turbulence, commodity price volatility, supply shortages, regulatory changes, and rising crude oil prices as its reasons for the move.

Temasek’s FTX investment scrutinised in Singapore parliament
An internal unit at Temasek will conduct the review separately from the team that decided to invest in FTX and will report directly to the board; This is a step up from the company’s usual review process for all its investments.

Animoca Brands to launch US$2B metaverse fund
The firm has made a staggering 66 investments in H1 2022, making the record for the most done in the cryptocurrency space; Animoca was valued at US$5.9B last July after raising US$75.3M.

Binance reenters Japan with crypto exchange acquisition
Binance has acquired a 100% stake in Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC); In 2018, Binance exited the country after receiving a warning from the Japan Financial Services Agency for operating without a license.

GoTo shares fall to a new low after stock lockup expires
The stock price plunged 6.6% to US$0.009 on Thursday morning, down 58% from the IPO price of US$0.022; Its valuation has now fallen to ~US$10B from US$15B in October-end.

Carousell posts US$49.5M in revenue in 2021 as growth slows
In the year ending December 31, 2021, the Singapore-based firm’s losses before taxes narrowed 33.5% year on year to US$43.9M as it trimmed total expenses by 14.4% to US$95.4M.

Asia Partners eyes US$600M fundraise for SEA fund
Asia Partners invests in startups with ticket sizes ranging from US$20M to US$100M, which commonly lies within the Series C or Series D rounds of investments.

SG’s Iterative closes US$55M Fund II for early-stage investments
The LPs include Cendana, K5 Global, Village Global, and Goodwater Capital; The new funding will allow Iterative to increase its check sizes to US$500K and add more programmes for founders in different stages.

Beenext said to be raising large Asia fund
Sources told DealStreetAsia that the fund could target a corpus of around US$280M and may rope in a Japanese bank as one of the leading LPs; The fund has already raised a few double-digit million dollars.

Alibaba launches e-commerce platform in Spain
Miravia’s launch comes after Lazada received infusions of US$912.5M and US$378M in funding from its parent firm Alibaba this year; It was reported then that Lazada was eyeing an expansion into Europe.

Indonesia’s top Islamic group trains slights on tech investments
It plans to launch an endowment fund to invest across various sectors; The organisation made its first investment in Jakarta-based healthtech firm Zi.Care.

Igloo extends its Series B to US$46M with a US$27M tranche
The investors include InsuResilience Investment Fund II, WAM, Finnfund, La Maison, and Cathay Innovation; Igloo provides “competitively-priced” insurance for delivery riders in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

MAS awards major payment institution license to MetaComp
With a major payment institution license, the crypto platform can provide digital asset services to corporates as well as traditional and crypto-native institutional investors.

Malaysia’s Al Rajhi Bank launches digibank offering
ARBM said a wide range of services is already available on its digibank app Rize, including deposits, account and personal finance management, debit card application, and ATM services.

In photos: SCB 10X’s 10,000 sqft web3 collaborative space DISTRICTX in Bangkok
The space is equipped with meeting rooms, a town hall, an operational war room, a podcast room and a dining space; DistrictX will host a bi-monthly workshop to engage the community by sharing knowledge and building projects.

CeFi, a ‘necessary evil’ today: 7 reasons why trustless DEX is the future
An increasing number of DEXes are integrating scaling solutions that will massively increase transaction workload while keeping costs low.

Connectivity, infrastructure are key barriers for fund managers to adopt tokens: Calastone
How can we eliminate this barrier? According to Ross Fox of Calastone, adoption is a key challenge for tokenised investments.

Is “teleporting” between workspaces truly possible?
How Japanese startup, tonari, helps people “teleport” to different workspaces in our increasingly remote work environment.

Are you a human resource?
When an organisation describes their people as “human resources”, they were diminishing the fundamental miracle of each and every person.

Building bridges: Asia’s fintech firms look to DIFC to cross into MEASA markets
Fintechs from Singapore and wider Asian markets are looking to establish themselves in DIFC and make sizeable investments in our ecosystem.

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From public health scares to ongoing conflict and geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions are becoming more frequent.

Past lockdowns in key port cities, military conflicts, and trade disputes slowed the flow of raw materials to manufacturing hubs and finished goods to consumer markets, forcing companies to reconfigure their supply and production networks. More companies are following in response to ongoing conflict-related shortages.

Aside from strategies such as near-sourcing production and regionalising supply chains, companies are also investing in digital solutions to address disruptions. These include tools that enable complete supply chain visibility for decision-makers, the utilisation of data and analytics for better planning, and predictive models to identify future disruptions.

But while enterprises are progressing in these fields, the trade finance sector continues to lag behind other components of the supply chain network. Financial institutions’ processes are still paper-intensive and highly manual, slowing down the entire supply chain and generating more operational costs for all parties involved while remaining vulnerable to fraud.

Traditional processes are holding the trade finance sector back

Trade finance has been a paper- and labour-intensive sector throughout its long history. But with the astronomical growth in supply chain networks’ complexity, as well as the sheer volume of goods being shipped, the highly-traditional trade finance system is hindering business efficiency, agility and scalability.

Also Read: Can blockchain function as a medium for social good and digital philanthropy?

With its preponderance of manual processes and overreliance on physical documents, supply chains are littered with process inefficiencies, susceptibility to fraud, and unnecessary increases in costs.

Large amounts of physical documentation, such as product, shipping, and transaction details, are exchanged through multiple parties. Fairly straightforward processes can take up to months to complete.

Meanwhile, this is all against a backdrop of more stringent due diligence requirements such as know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML). These regulations are precisely in response to the lack of transparency that legacy processes exacerbate.

And failure to comply will have serious consequences on businesses’ ability to continue driving Asia Pacific’s economic growth. According to the Asia Development Bank (ADB), the region has the highest rejection rate of trade finance proposals at 34 per cent.

Little wonder, as fraud — especially duplicate trade financing — continues to be a thorn in the side of trade finance. In one of the most prominent cases in recent history, Singapore oil trading company Hin Leong, led to US$3.85 billion in losses for 23 banks. While this type of fraud, which involves financing a single invoice multiple times, is not new and has occurred in the industry as far back as decades ago, institutions are unable to make significant progress against it.

This is a result of the lack of visibility and transparency between stakeholders due to the difficulty in sharing critical data in a timely fashion. In turn, the collaboration between stakeholders takes a blow and opportunities for malpractice become commonplace.

Blockchain tech makes processes faster, cost-efficient, and transparent

When trade finance is done on a decentralised blockchain, all transactions are recorded in a secure database which is accessible to all parties to the trade.

This addresses the three major challenges facing trade finance transactions: inefficiencies stemming from the use of large quantities of physical documents, increased costs of complying with regulatory requirements, and the lack of total visibility, which makes the system vulnerable to fraud.

Also Read: Busan Blockchain Week 2022: Trends shaping the future of NFT

Conducting transactions through a decentralised blockchain entails digitalising the documentation created, exchanged, and processed by the various stakeholders in a supply chain.

Transmitting the electronic versions of these documents through the blockchain reduces transaction times from months to hours because all involved parties have access to it. The costs associated with such paper-intensive processes are also reduced.

In addition, stakeholders with access to the blockchain have complete visibility over the whole process, significantly reducing the risk of duplicate trade financing. At the same time, parties are assured of the integrity of their data due to the unprecedented security of digital ledger technology.

Successful blockchain adoption is a network-wide effort

For the utilisation of blockchain technology in trade finance to be successful, all parties must buy into it. If just one of the multiple parties in a cross-border trade scenario is not part of the decentralised blockchain, other parties will not be able to have full visibility on all transactions, and confidence in the latter’s integrity against fraud would not be possible.

Improvements in transaction speed and lowered operational costs would not reach their full potential as well. There would still be a need for physical documentation in certain links in the whole supply chain, as well as slower processes.

Financial institutions and other large organisations must take the lead with blockchain adoption. They can be the drivers of change in trade finance, influencing other stakeholders to become more efficient via improved transparency and collaboration. In addition, this can also fine-tune legislation and regulatory mechanisms to enable the pivot towards blockchain technology in the overall supply chain process.

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Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency company, has acquired 100 per cent of Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), the Japanese-registered crypto exchange service provider.

The details of the deal haven’t been disclosed.

Through this acquisition, Binance is set to re-enter the Japanese crypto market as a Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) regulated entity four years after it had exited the country.

Binance aims to support a responsible global environment for cryptocurrencies by offering Japanese-regulated services through SEBC.

The acquisition of SEBC marks Binance’s first license in East Asia.

Also Read: In photos: SCB 10X’s 10,000 sqft web3 collaborative space DISTRICTX in Bangkok

Binance has secured regulatory approvals or authorisations in France, Italy, Spain, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, Poland, Lithuania, and Cyprus. 

“The Japanese market will play a key role in the future of cryptocurrency adoption. We will actively work with regulators to develop our combined exchange in a compliant way for local users. We are eager to help Japan take a leading role in crypto,” said Takeshi Chino, General Manager of Binance Japan

Sakura Exchange currently supports 11 trading pairs, including BTC/JPY, ETH/JPY, BCH/JPY, XRP/JPY, LTC/JPY, ETC/JPY.

Hitomi Yamamoto, CEO of SEBC, said: “On top of our effort to prioritise user protection, Binance’s strong compliance system will build a more compliant atmosphere for users in Japan and help them access key crypto services needed for mass adoption in the future.”

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According to a climate market map of India and Southeast Asia (SEA) authored by Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed, while urgency and adherence vary across the SEA region, Singapore seems to be “well ahead” when it comes to the role of businesses in curbing the impact of climate change.

There are several examples, including SGX’s carbon accounting mandate for listed companies which threatened a delisting for those who do not adhere to it by 2024.

But Mohapatra wrote that the “most exciting development” in the role of businesses in tackling the impact of climate change is the shifting of talent from “not green” to “green” job options.

“Employees are increasingly acquiring green skills and transitioning into green and greening jobs, resulting in positive net transitions into these jobs. Younger generations are the largest sources of incoming talent into green careers across the world, with millennials leading the charge,” he detailed.

“Companies such as terra.do are helping accelerate this shift. While this volume of talent entering climate-related
roles are still too low to have a transformative impact by itself; we are encouraged by these shifts.”

Also Read: Beyond buzzwords: How climate tech startups can create an impact in green recovery

In addition to the trends related to talents and jobs, Lightspeed also noted down the spectrum of companies in SEA and India that are solving the challenges of climate change. The firm noted that these companies can be divided into four major categories:

– Companies that measure and report individual or institutional carbon or GHG footprint
– Companies that reduce other businesses’ footprint through operational or efficiency-related changes
– Companies that replace businesses’ current footprint with greener options
– Companies that offsett whatever remains via directly sequestering carbon or buying credits for it
via a marketplace that does sequestration on the clients’ behalf.

“Given how early the entire climate change category is, there are still a lot of misconceptions around what is needed, what is urgent, and what is sold as a product vs as a service. We attempt to simplify some of this,” Mohapatra wrote.

He also added how, having been evaluating climate investments in India since 2019, Lightspeed saw the exercise as “both sobering and alarming”.

Capitalism is part of our job profile, so it hasn’t been easy to come to terms with the role we, as venture capitalists, might have played in damaging our world. Large amounts of venture and entrepreneurial resources have gone to help serve more targeted advertisements to drive overconsumption of things — clothes, gadgets, household items — that are themselves built to last only a few years by design,” he concluded.

The full report is available here.

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Singapore’s leading mobile classifieds unicorn has laid off 110 employees (10 per cent of the group’s total headcount), citing a worsening macroeconomic environment.

Only workers of some business units are affected. The outgoing employees will be offered a month’s salary for every year of service, rounded up to the nearest half year. Everyone will have at least three months of compensation.

Announcing the job cuts in a blog post, Carousell Co-Founder and CEO Quek Siu Rui said: “As we emerged from the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2021 across key markets of our group, we were optimistic about the recovery to come and eager to reignite growth in our core classifieds business. Additionally, we doubled down on a number of new initiatives to make selling and buying more convenient and trusted, to make secondhand the first choice for even more people across the region. That meant creating more teams to work on these initiatives, which included new teammates that we had to hire.”

Also Read: Carousell enters unicorn club after a new US$100M round led by Korea’s STIC Investments

“Looking back, I’d made the following critical mistakes: First, I was too optimistic about the pace of our impact versus our increase in investments. The reality is that we were quick to grow our expenses and hire, but the returns took longer than expected. Second, while it is easy to blame market conditions, I also underestimated the impact of growing our team size too quickly — larger teams lead to a lack of clarity in decision-making and the additional coordination required to get things done,” he continued.

Siu Rui admitted that the company saw the signs of a perfect long storm: high inflation, geopolitical risks and supply chain disruption as early as March this year.

In recent weeks, things have taken a turn for the worse. The global economy continues to face steep challenges, with economists expecting a broad-based slowdown in 2023. The worsening macroeconomic environment presents more headwinds to the expected growth.

“We cannot change the wind, but we can adjust our sails,” he said. “As we do not know when market conditions will improve, it is only prudent that we get to profitability as a group as quickly as possible, to be masters of our destiny and build an enduring company.”

He further said it is important to act swiftly, course correct, and right-size the investment levels to better align with this new reality. The company is moving to an office with significantly lower rent, and the co-founders and group leadership will take voluntary pay cuts.

Also Read: Carousell acquires Ox Street to double down on its re-commerce efforts in Greater SEA

Carousell needs to reorganise to focus on critical priorities and operate more efficiently to accelerate the path to profitability.

“We will learn from our mistakes, adjust and course correct quickly to make the biggest impact for our community. Moving forward, we will sharpen our priorities as a company, keep a watchful eye on costs and only invest in high-conviction initiatives that are correctly set up for success,” the Carousell CEO said.

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Siam Commercial Bank (SCBX) group’s venture unit SCB 10X has announced the launch of SCB 10X DISTRICTX, a 10,000-square-foot web3 collaborative space in Bangkok, Thailand.

DISTRICTX will enable world-class community building and business co-working in blockchain and Web3.

The space is equipped with meeting rooms, a town hall, an operational war room, a podcast room and a dining space offering free refreshments.

The space consists of two main areas — Hacker House and Exponential Hub.

The Hacker House is an open-seating space where global innovators in blockchain and Web3 can engage.

The Hacker House will also house a six-month incubation programme in which SCB 10X will recruit developers and entrepreneurs to build Web3 startups and create potential unicorns.

The programme will offer end-to-end support from SCB 10X’s building team, product and design testing, mentoring from the brightest minds in the ecosystems, and external fundraising and scaling.

The Exponential Hub is a co-working space for SCB 10X’s partners, which include Fireblocks, Nansen, The Sandbox and RakkaR Digital.

DistrictX will also host “moonshot meetup,” a bi-monthly workshop to engage the community by sharing knowledge and building projects.

It will be the home of future events like the Hacker House Program and Hackathons. 

Besides its role in investing and building, SCB 10X will educate and create awareness with the general public about Blockchain and Web3.

SCB 10X was established in 2020 with a “moonshot mission” to achieve growth through technology innovation and investment.

“Collaboration is key during this bear market, and we are excited to bring high potential startups, passionate entrepreneurs, prospective partners, and enthusiastic developers into Bangkok to strengthen the global communities of blockchain and Web3,” said Mukaya (Tai) Panich, CEO at SCB 10X.

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Photo credit: SCB 10X.

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Months ago, a story in my country went viral over a small business owner cancelling an interview with a young intern who had requested for it to be held online instead of in person. There is more back story to this, but it sparked off conversations with the business owner labelled “boomer”, “out of touch”, and “toxic”. The opposing internet-pitchfork crowd expressed support for the older business owner’s assertions that the new generation of workers was “entitled” and “lacked drive”.

I entered the workforce at 14 years old, working for an internationally renowned organisation that experienced staggering global success. If you’re reading this, chances are high that you are/have been a consumer of the firm that took a chance on me when I was just a kid.

(That paragraph above is a classic inflated LinkedIn way of saying I was flipping burgers for the ‘Golden Arches’)

Two weeks ago, a young entrepreneur left an acronym on one of my posts. I had to google it to find out what it meant (Thanks, Urban Dictionary). That lost lingo moment reminded me I’m no longer the “next generation”. For a large part of my career over the last 15 years, I was used to being the kid in the room.

Also Read: How companies can nurture the next generation of tech talent today

My career journey started with pitching a startup idea at the inaugural Young Social Entrepreneur programme held by Singapore International Foundation. Following that, we were presented with many opportunities to network and grow our little startup.

This meant we were often placed in the room with fellow Founders and CEOs. I was 17 years old, and these people were four times (!) my age. Looking back, it’s fascinating to observe how the older generation treated me.

Here’s my take on two common touch points between generations:

Mentorship

In the current days of antagonistic ties between generations, there is another end of the spectrum where the older generation is all ready to dispense words of wisdom, and the younger generation is calling for a mentor in their life.

I fully subscribe to the belief that it helps to be open and teachable towards people who have more experience than I do. And to every younger person who came wanting to learn from me, I yearn to give back in ways to emulate those before me. But I think giving it the title “mentor” distracts me and is unnecessary.

For those of us who believe in the importance of intergenerational support, we need to be careful about missing the point of mentorship.

So a word to the old and young: “Eat the flesh, discard the bones.”

In mentoring, the last thing we want is to replicate ourselves. What we want is to raise better people. To achieve that, we need to recognise that each generation grew up on different terms and are facing different challenges.

They’re going to do things differently, and at the end of the day, we’re all there to learn from each other. You’ll also find that the closer you work with anyone, you’ll start to see beyond the good that attracted you, and you’ll see their humanity and weaknesses. To that, I say, “Eat the flesh, discard the bones”.

Also Read: What I learn about starting a business from my Generation Z sister

In being mentored, do you call this person your mentor because you want to be associated with his/her success and stature, or are you really interested in gleaning from how they conduct their business (and life)?

If it’s the latter, there’s really no need for titles. All you gotta do is find opportunities to work with them. And in that process, observe and learn. That’s how the spillover happens.

Leadership — Which generation should be taking responsibility?

When a child is lost, they look to adults for direction. It is in such interactions that ingrained in me the belief that older people would always know what to do.

So imagine my panic as I became an adult when I realised I still didn’t know what to do. But I felt better once I looked around and realised no one actually really knows what is going to happen next.

Young or old.

Everyone is just trying to figure a way forward in life, and therein lies that common thread to hold on to and pull together towards collaboration. I’ve learned not to look to my seniors for certainty but for partnership. Everyone has something to offer, and everyone also has weaknesses to buffer.

There’s so much unnecessary resentment that can be avoided by just letting go of that expectation for another generation to be solving today’s problems. A leader can emerge from any generation, and the challenges we face are going to need all hands on deck to tackle. We think we need to find someone good enough, but the truth is closer to us walking together, trying to hit that mark together.

May the boomers and zoomers work in harmony and stop channelling awkward tension energy to the sandwiched generation.

Yours truly,

Gen Y (u fight so much)?

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As the world becomes increasingly digitalised, innovations like cryptocurrency have seen an unprecedented rise. Businesses and entrepreneurs dealing in cryptocurrency are sprouting left and right, meaning talented Web3 engineers will be relevant for a long time. This is best demonstrated by the fact that despite the challenges and volatility that have plagued the crypto industry resulting in high-profile layoffs in the tech sector, the overall demand for quality web3 engineers remains robust.

In fact, according to a report from the job search engine, Indeed, job postings for crypto and blockchain careers saw a massive 118% year-on-year jump. It isn’t enough to say that the demand for quality web3 engineers is growing; it’s that the demand is never going away.

RareSkills.io to bridge the gaps in the global talent pool

RareSkills.io, a web3 boot camp founded this year, seeks to meet that demand.

Unlike boot camps that seek to turn over as many students as possible, RareSkills orients itself around keeping classes small (5 students per cohort) and building long-term relationships with students.

Even after engineers in the programme successfully gain jobs at web3 engineering companies as smart contract engineers, they generally stay in the programme. Although the core Solidity for Ethereum Bootcamp lasts four months, RareSkills encourages students to remain in the programme, engage in open source contributions, and take more specialised boot camps in topics such as DeFi, Zero Knowledge Proofs, and alternative blockchains such as Solana. Engineers in the programme could study for over a year with RareSkills if they chose to.

Also read: Is “teleporting” between workspaces truly possible?

“One reason experience in Silicon Valley is so valuable is that it has a built-in apprenticeship model. It is part of the culture that senior engineers do regular one-on-one code reviews with junior engineers, and this highly personalised and tailored experience results in highly efficient upskilling,” said Jeffrey Scholz, founder of RareSkills.

“I believe we can take this model and dial it up to 11. In a regular company, junior engineers have to work on what is valuable to the company. In RareSkills, they can work on what will grow their knowledge and skills the fastest.”

Focusing on each student to maximise their potential

RareSkills places a heavy emphasis on small class sizes, limiting them to five per cohort.

“The reason for the heavy emphasis on small class sizes is that most studies indicate that leaders managing more than eight reports lose the ability to really guide people. A class of 3 seems too small; if eight is the limit, then five seems like a good number. The teacher can track the students on the one hand,” explained Scholz.

“If you really peel behind the veneer of statistics about the success rates of coding boot camps, it’s actually quite low,” added Scholz. “I used to interview boot camp students regularly when I was an Engineering Manager at Yahoo, and I’d say 90% of them were extremely underprepared. The ones who did well spent several more months practising coding. I don’t think it’s realistic for someone to gain useful expertise in specialised engineering topics over the course of a few months. That’s why our programme is so long.”

Also read: The Big Leap roadshow kickstarts in Jakarta with a panel on the Gen Z market

Unlike most boot camps, RareSkills is quite selective about the students they onboard, as it impacts the overall quality of the boot camp and the success of the rest of the students in the cohort. They expect students to have at least two years of software engineering experience and are willing to allocate 20-30 hours per week.

To enter the programme, students must demonstrate a passion for web3 and pass a coding test and an interview comparable to what major tech companies interview potential talents. About 20% of RareSkills students already have jobs as Web3 engineers, most of whom are sponsored by their company. One student was even a blockchain instructor at another boot camp.

“There is a world of difference between a web3 engineer and a qualified web3 engineer. Anyone can make a blockchain token by following a YouTube tutorial. But when money is involved, you want to be sure that the person making the application really knows what they are doing. Having 5 or 10 weeks of experience or an online certification does very little to prove you know what you are doing in this high-stakes industry. Smart contract hacks are, unfortunately, far too common. It shows many web3 engineers are undertrained,” elaborated Scholz.

Building a reputable brand

RareSkills has grown chiefly through word of mouth and an unusual marketing campaign on Twitter. Their Twitter account regularly posts extremely challenging web3 programming challenges and places a cryptocurrency bounty for developers and hackers who can solve it first or produce the most efficient solution. “We’ve received a lot of positive feedback for this. These puzzles are quite time-consuming to solve, but when someone figures it out and publishes a writeup, a lot of up-and-coming web3 engineers learn from the solutions,” Scholz explained.

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“The prize money we give out is quite small. I’m pretty sure people are engaging with the puzzles for the intellectual thrill and the notoriety they get for solving them. Nothing demonstrates your expertise like solving a challenge most people get stuck on,” he added.

They are currently accepting applications for the upcoming boot camp, and if you’re an engineer, you can apply now by clicking here. RareSkills is also seeking talent recruitment and engineering training partnerships.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by RareSkills

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