Don't just focus on educational qualifications; search for Web3 talent with a crypto spirit.

Education and experience remain important, but they are most effective when combined with observable output.

Written by: Ben Wu, a16z

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

The emergence of cryptocurrency is not just about reshaping money or moving databases onto the blockchain. It represents a deeper transformation: shifting from opaque systems to mechanisms that can be directly inspected, verified, and simulated. Code is open and transparent, transaction settlement is predictable, and rules are enforced by non-subjective software.

However, when it comes to hiring, many builders of these systems have quietly forgotten these principles. Crypto industry hiring often remains surprisingly traditional: educational background, big company experience, endorsements from well-known institutions still dominate early screening.

While these signals are convenient, they are fundamentally trust-based. They lead decision-makers to infer ability rather than verify it. This article will explain how we can approach hiring in a way that aligns more with the crypto ethos and is more likely to produce excellent results.

The Education and Experience Funnel

Traditional hiring relies on heuristics: degrees, previous employers, official titles. These are compressed into screening tags that enable teams to make quick decisions when time and resources are limited. Used cautiously, these shortcuts are not irrational.

But over time, a hiring approach based solely on experience can introduce bias: for example, overlooking those who learn through practice rather than rote methods; overemphasizing institutional background while neglecting actual skills; or delaying the demonstration of real ability until late in the process (or ignoring it altogether).

Verifiable Signals Already Exist in Crypto

One of the core features of the crypto industry is that work results are generally publicly accessible. Builders don’t need permission from centralized gatekeepers or third-party certificates to prove their skills—they just need to produce something.

As a result, crypto talent leaves behind continuous, verifiable records of output, including:

• Open source code repositories, commit histories, pull requests, and code reviews
• Deployments to testnets and mainnets, with verifiable source code for smart contracts
• On-chain activity viewable via block explorers and protocol interfaces
• Contributions to hackathons, DAOs, and open-source communities

Resumes are ultimately just statements, but technical work leaves evidence. These can be directly inspected without relying on endorsements, recommendations, or institutional reputation.

In the crypto world, a person’s work can be recognized without institutional backing. No matter where you graduated from or who you’ve worked for, your output can be directly verified.

Especially for technical roles, showcasing work is far more convincing than background alone. Moreover, these contributions accumulate over time: commit histories are permanently accessible, deployments continue to run, and contribution histories deepen. Many builders in crypto have already proven their capabilities before their resumes reflect it.

Contributors have stood out in hackathons before securing official positions at foundations; builders have gained reputation in DAOs without ever holding formal titles.

Output First, Recognition Follows

When verifiable work becomes more visible, imitation also becomes easier. Open-source contributions are long-standing strong signals of technical ability, but with the proliferation of AI tools and increased incentives for open contributions, this signal is becoming noisy.

Some contributors focus on quantity over quality: making numerous small changes across multiple repositories, with little follow-up or effort to tackle more challenging problems. These changes may be correct and occasionally accepted, but they do not demonstrate deep understanding or ongoing responsibility.

Even with these issues, verification remains effective—provided we genuinely evaluate the work itself. Code quality, problem selection, and a history of long-term contributions are more important than isolated achievements.

High-value builders demonstrate depth and continuity, with their work continuously accumulating. If you know how to distinguish them, low-value builders are easy to spot.

Moving Toward a “Verification-First” Hiring Model

To more efficiently identify talent, more teams can adopt a verification-first hiring approach:

• Highlight verifiable signals early: prioritize code quality, deployed systems, contribution history—treat resumes as background rather than gatekeepers.
• Incorporate on-chain and open-source data directly into the hiring process: consider these outputs as key materials.
• Embed hiring into real-world contexts: engage deeply in hackathons, DAOs, and open-source communities where talent already exists.

“Verification-first” requires teams to change how they attract talent: no longer passively wait for candidates to apply or rely on narrow filters like target companies or prestigious schools. Founders and hiring teams can proactively seek builders who have already produced high-quality work publicly: core repositories, deployed systems, governance or design discussions, and other foundational infrastructure relied upon by teams.

For example, excellent Solidity engineers are often found in:

• Core protocol and tooling repositories on GitHub
• Public discussions and submissions for Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs)
• Deployed contracts and on-chain activity visible on explorers like Etherscan

This logic applies across all ecosystems, including Move-based blockchains, Rust developers, zero-knowledge systems, and various application protocols. Hackathons are high-value talent pools; events like ETHGlobal and Solana Breakpoint gather builders capable of coding and delivering under pressure.

In Conclusion

This is not about replacing one set of credentials with another, but shifting focus from indirect evidence to direct evidence.

Education and experience are still important, but they are most effective when combined with observable output. In an industry rooted in transparency and execution, crypto hiring should start with verification. Trust should be a background factor, not a prerequisite.

This aligns with the industry’s core mantra: Don’t trust, verify. Now, it’s time to apply it to finding the best talent.