Building Blockchain Talent

Developing Skills for a Post-Rebased, Real-World IOTA

TL;DR:

The rebased IOTA mainnet marks a major milestone: our technology is now production-ready. But to truly drive adoption, particularly in areas like global trade and supply chains, we must also equip people with the skills to build, govern, and innovate using it. That’s why talent development is a key pillar of our strategy going forward.

But the blockchain sector still faces a major skills gap: developers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and even everyday users often lack accessible pathways to understand and work with distributed ledger technology (DLT). (“Demand for blockchain developers exceeds supply”, according to a Key Web3 Hiring Trends in 2025 report by blockchain talent search firm RecruitBlock). These skills gaps directly impact real-world adoption – businesses need blockchain-literate teams to implement DLT solutions that solve actual problems.

They say a rising tide lifts all boats. So we’ve made blockchain education a strategic priority: not just for us, but for the ecosystems and industries we support.

A European Strategy for Blockchain Skills: Our Role in CHAISE

The CHAISE project, a four-year EU initiative, brought together partners like INATBA, Fujitsu, and the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, to define Europe’s blockchain skills strategy.

Its outputs – from the first recognized “Blockchain Specialist” profile to a multilingual vocational curriculum and online course – lay a strong foundation for scalable, inclusive blockchain training.

We contributed our hands-on experience as a DLT innovator, hosting online seminars and undertaking interviews with industry experts, local market research to understand trends, and outreach with education institutions to assess the blockchain skills gap in Europe. Our input ensured that the curriculum aligned with evolving industry needs.

Explore the CHAISE curriculum:

Beyond CHAISE: How We're Expanding Blockchain Access Globally

CHAISE was just the beginning. Globally, we’ve launched initiatives that make blockchain learning more engaging and accessible:

Collaborating on Academic Research: Cutting-edge education requires cutting-edge research. We collaborate with institutions like Imperial College London, where we helped fund the I3-Lab to research digital circular economy solutions

Incentivized Learning: We make education rewarding as a way to spark curiosity and recognize effort. Through campaigns like the recent Learn & Earn with CoinGecko, participants earn tokens as they explore IOTA and DLT in a fun, gamified format. Meanwhile, our IOTA Ambassador Bounty Board challenges community members to showcase their content creation and engagement skills, rewarding knowledge-sharing contributions to the ecosystem.

Hands-On Experience at IOTA Hackathons: To turn theory into practice, we organize major events such as Moveathon and regional events like the IOTA Hackathon Malaysia, focused on IOTA, MoveVM and EVM. These events bring developers, startups, and mentors together to innovate, collaborate, and grow their skills in real time.

Blockchain Conversations: We co-host conferences like the IOTA East Africa Web3 Innovation Summit, showcasing IOTA tech and its impact on trade; and Beyond the Chain, where we explore the cutting-edge of DAG technology.

Online Learning Sessions: We host free online sessions to help our global community explore IOTA and broader blockchain topics, like our Buildsphere AMAsor DeFi Education Serieswith Bankless. Keep an eye on our socials for news about the next sessions, and check out our YouTube channel for past episodes.

By showing up, speaking up, and supporting community-led initiatives, we ensure DLT training isn’t just top-down, but grassroots too.

We’re especially grateful to our community for their tireless work in creating content that educates not just about IOTA’s tools and features, but also about the broader world of decentralized finance (DeFi) and DLT.

Skills: The Missing Link in Blockchain Adoption

With the rebased IOTA mainnet setting the stage for production-ready innovation, the skills we're building today directly enable tomorrow's real-world applications: from decentralized finance to global trade and supply chain solutions. This is just the beginning of a new chapter for IOTA and its ecosystem. As we scale our efforts globally, we’ll continue to:

• Champion practical, inclusive education
• Partner with academic institutions and developers to close knowledge gaps.
• Expand the reach of IOTA’s tech through open learning resources, hackathons, and community sessions.

To all the educators, developers, and curious learners who’ve joined us on this journey: thank you. Together, we’re building both the technology and the knowledge needed to apply it with responsibility, creativity, and purpose.

Want to get involved?

• Developers: Follow @iota for upcoming Moveathon and regional hackathons and join our builders’ discord to start building with IOTA’s tech stack.
• Learners: Dive into the CHAISE curriculum and earn EU-recognized certificates.
• Educators & Institutions: Contact research@iota.org to collaborate with us on research and teaching initiatives.
• Community Builders: Check out #ambassador-chat on our community discord to become an IOTA Ambassador and create impactful educational content.