The process of implementing blockchain solutions is very complicated and requires significant specialized skills and resources. This makes it challenging for many businesses to find and retain qualified blockchain developers, cope with project complexities, and keep abreast of an increasingly fast-changing technological landscape.
According to the Deloitte global shared services and outsourcing survey, there has been a growth of around 30% in demand for outsourcing, indicating increasing business requirements in seeking outside expert help in coping with such scenarios.
This article provides an all-inclusive guide on why you should outsource blockchain development services, specifying the key benefits and potential pitfalls and offering practical advice for successful outsourcing partnerships.
When should you outsource blockchain development services
Keep an eye out for these six signs – if you’re experiencing them then you should outsource blockchain development services.
Struggling with blockchain skill gap and lack of in-house expertise
Finding and retaining skilled blockchain developers is a major challenge due to the severe skills shortage in the blockchain industry. Companies of all sizes are affected by this shortage, but startups and SMEs have significant difficulties as they sometimes lack the resources needed to compete with enterprises that offer attractive benefits and pay packages. According to the Blockchain Council, the increasing adoption of Web3 has further exacerbating the shortage of skilled professionals.
As a result of this talent scarcity, many companies lack the in-house expertise required to effectively implement blockchain technology. This lack of know-how in the key areas like blockchain platforms (Ethereum, Solana, Hyperledger Fabric, Corda, Binance Smart Chain), crypto, consensus mechanism, and smart contract programming (Solidity, Rust, Vyper, Move) has a direct influence on business outcomes.
Without the right in-house expertise, companies struggle to make the right decisions, leading to costly project delays, operational inefficiencies, and ultimately the adoption of suboptimal blockchain solutions.
If you are having difficulty:
- Finding people who have demonstrated blockchain expertise.
- Evaluating potential candidates’ technical blockchain skills.
- Understanding the differences between different blockchain systems and their usefulness for your project.
- Developing a complete blockchain strategy due to a lack of internal knowledge?
Then, it’s time to outsource blockchain development services.
How outsourcing benefits
Outsourcing gives you instant access to a pre-screened team of blockchain professionals with broad skill sets and proven experience across many blockchain technologies.
Instead of struggling to decide on a blockchain strategy or evaluate different platforms, you get a partner who can offer well-informed suggestions tailored to your company’s specific requirements. This expertise allows you to make sound decisions about your long-term plan, implementation strategies, and technology selection, avoiding costly mistakes and ensuring that your blockchain projects complement your company’s overall goals.
Additionally, outsourcing gives you access to a talent pool from around the world, meaning you can find experts in highly specialized areas of blockchain technology, such as specific consensus processes, layer 2 scaling solutions, or use cases unique to your industry.
Experiencing high recruitment costs and lengthy hiring process
Even if you manage to get the right blockchain developers, hiring them can be extremely difficult and expensive. There is intense competition for top talent due to the strong demand for these specialized talents, which increases salary expectations.
According to BSV Blockchain report, blockchain development is one of the most lucrative jobs, with developers earning between $150,000 and $175,000 per year. This high demand is due to the unique and extremely particular skill set required.
Furthermore, the hiring process, which includes advertising blockchain job openings, reviewing resumes, conducting multiple rounds of technical interviews, giving blockchain developers rigorous technical assessments, and onboarding new employees, can cause significant delays in project completion times and strain internal resources.
If you are struggling with:
- High salary demands for potential blockchain developers.
- Longer time to hire for blockchain positions
- Significant expenses related to job postings and recruiting firms
- Internal resources being diverted from core tasks to manage the hiring process
Then, it’s time to outsource blockchain development services.
How outsourcing benefits
By outsourcing blockchain development, you completely skip the hiring process and instantly get a dedicated blockchain development team on board, saving huge time and resources that would have gone into hiring, onboarding, and ongoing employee management.
Specifically, outsourcing to regions like India, you can save a lot of money due to cost arbitrage. At the same time, you will get access to highly skilled professionals in blockchain technology. This way, you get to start on your project quickly, efficiently, and on budget.
Facing difficulty managing fluctuating resource needs
Blockchain initiatives rarely stay stagnant. As your company grows or market conditions change, your project needs may shift, requiring changes in team size, skill sets, or development emphasis. Managing these changing requirements with an in-house team can be problematic, resulting in overstaffing, understaffing, or trouble adapting to changes in project scope
If you are struggling to
- Rapidly scale up or down your blockchain development team based on project requirements.
- Scale your blockchain infrastructure to accommodate increasing transaction volumes or network development.
- Adapting your project scope or tech stack as the blockchain ecosystem changes?
Then, it’s time to outsource blockchain development services.
How outsourcing benefits
Outsourcing blockchain development offers the flexibility to scale up or down your team as needed. Whether you need a larger team for intensive development sprints or a smaller team for ongoing maintenance and support, outsourcing allows you to simply scale up or down your resources, avoiding long-term staffing concerns and keeping your project on track with the changing demands of your business.
Outsourcing also gives you the freedom to build a proof of concept (PoC) quickly. Before committing to a full-scale project, this allows you to assess the feasibility and potential ROI of a blockchain solution in a cost-effective and low-risk way. By taking an agile approach, you can gain useful insights, validate your ideas, and decide on your blockchain strategy with confidence.
Struggling to access emerging blockchain technologies
The blockchain field is continually evolving, with new blockchain protocols, platforms, and scaling solutions emerging. Companies must be agile and react quickly to benefit from blockchain innovations and maintain a competitive edge in the blockchain industry. It can be difficult to establish in-house expertise in rapidly changing domains such as DeFi development, NFT development, Web3 development, and Metaverse development.
If you are struggling to
- Stay up to date with the latest blockchain developments and innovations.
- Quickly adapt new protocols or platforms related to your project.
- Respond efficiently to changing market needs or new blockchain possibilities.
Then, it’s time to outsource blockchain development services.
How outsourcing benefits
Blockchain outsourcing companies are often at the forefront of advancements in technology. They make significant investments in ongoing training and education to ensure their blockchain development teams are familiar with the latest platforms, tools, and best practices. This gives you instant access to the latest blockchain technologies and allows you to incorporate them into your projects quickly.
Encountering challenges in managing blockchain project complexity, security and compliance
Blockchain projects are inherently complex. They involve decentralized architectures and intricate integrations with existing systems. Creating smart contracts adds another level of complexity. Additionally, rigorous security measures are required to protect against vulnerabilities and blockchain attacks.
Smart contract security audits, secure blockchain key management, and compliance with evolving blockchain legislation (KYC/AML, data privacy, GDPR, CCPA) require blockchain security expertise and strict standards.
For example, a financial institution implementing a blockchain-based payment system can deal with the challenges of integrating decentralized technology with its current infrastructure. To protect customer information and stop fraud, they would need to ensure that smart contracts are secure and compliant with laws such as KYC/AML.
Also Read: Implementing Upgradeable Smart Contracts Using Proxy Patterns
If you are struggling with
- The complexity of integrating blockchain with your current systems using blockchain APIs and SDKs
- Security risks related to smart contracts, blockchain wallets, and decentralized applications (dApps)
- Managing the changing regulatory environment for blockchain technology, including DeFi and cryptocurrency regulations
- Implementing blockchain security protocols and best practices for your blockchain project
Then, it’s time to outsource blockchain development services.
How outsourcing benefits
Reputable blockchain development companies are capable of solving such problems efficiently. Through outsourcing, you can gain access to this knowledge, helping reduce blockchain risk and ensure success of your projects.
The right blockchain development company applies robust blockchain security protocols, follows established development processes, and is familiar with relevant blockchain legislation.
Experiencing operational inefficiency and impaired strategic focus
Beyond coding, blockchain projects need a lot of operational resources. Maintaining the necessary infrastructure, controlling the development process, and ensuring quality can take away important time and resources from your key business objectives.
If you are struggling with:
- Managing blockchain project management challenges such as deadlines, finances, and communication.
- Ensuring the quality and security of your blockchain solutions through rigorous testing and quality control procedures.
- Managing and maintaining the technology infrastructure required for blockchain development and deployment.
- Managing blockchain development needs alongside other critical business initiatives.
Then, it’s time to outsource blockchain development services.
How outsourcing benefits
By outsourcing blockchain development, you transfer all operational responsibility to a dedicated team. This includes project management, quality assurance and testing, infrastructure management, and ongoing maintenance and support. This allows your in-house staff to focus on strategic goals, business development, identifying new market opportunities, and driving overall company growth.
By doing this, you can increase productivity, make the most of internal resources, and shorten time to market by escaping the daily operational difficulties of blockchain development.
But there are risks to outsourcing if not done diligently! Let’s explore these challenges and discuss strategies for effective mitigation.
Challenges to outsourcing blockchain development services
While there are numerous benefits to outsourcing blockchain development, there are also some disadvantages that need to be carefully considered. If these potential issues are ignored, project delays and cost overruns can occur. Let’s discuss these issues and discuss practical solutions.
Fear of losing control
Many companies are hesitant to outsource blockchain development because they fear losing control of such a sensitive and technically challenging project. They worry about the integrity of their blockchain solution, the security of their smart contracts, and proper interaction with decentralized networks.
The specialized nature of blockchain technology exacerbates this anxiety by making it challenging for stakeholders who are not technically inclined to efficiently track progress and ensure quality.
How to mitigate it?
- Set clear communication channels from day one.
- Establish quantifiable benchmarks for deliverables related to blockchain, such security evaluations, testnet deployments, and smart contract audits.
- Implement routine reporting procedures and check-ins.
- Appoint a dedicated project manager who is well-versed in blockchain principles to serve as a point of contact (POC) and guarantee regular updates on technological details, security procedures, and legal needs.
Handling confidentially and security concerns
Sharing sensitive blockchain project information with an external partner, such as smart contract logic, private keys, tokenomics, or consensus mechanism design, poses substantial security and confidentiality issues. Data breaches, intellectual property theft, and the compromising of private keys might all have serious financial and reputational ramifications.
How to mitigate it?
- Do a thorough due diligence investigation before choosing an outsourced company for blockchain development projects, paying particular attention to the company’s experience with blockchain security and compliance.
- Look for security-related reviews and testimonials on websites like Clutch, GoodFirms and Designrush.
- Put in place robust legal safeguards, such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) that specifically handle information unique to blockchains and outline penalties for infractions.
- To preserve ownership of created smart contracts, blockchain code, and any other project-related intellectual property, contracts should also clearly define intellectual property rights.
- For sensitive data exchange consider using encryption and secure communication channels.
Communication and time zone differences
Communication and time zone differences are major issues in outsourced blockchain development projects, due to the dispersed nature of the work. When your development team is based in a different time zone, real-time communication becomes problematic, which can cause delays in responses, explanations, and decision-making. This can hamper project development, particularly during critical times that require regular interaction.
Misunderstandings can also arise through asynchronous communication, where messages are sent with delays, which can lead to misinterpretations of requests or feedback. Additionally, cultural disparities in communication techniques can make the situation worse. Some cultures may value direct communication, while others may prefer indirect communication, increasing the chance of misunderstandings.
How to mitigate it?
- Adopt a “follow-the-sun” strategy wherever possible, organizing work schedules to optimize overlapping work hours.
- Use project management software like Jira, Trello, or Asana to organize tasks, share files, and communicate asynchronously.
- Implement regular, planned meetings to account for time zone variations, ensuring real-time conversations, progress reports, and quick resolution of any emerging issues.
- Set clear communication rules, such as response times and escalation processes, to manage expectations and minimize delays.
- Select an outsourcing partner with strong English language skills and experience in working with clients from similar cultural backgrounds.
Also Read: How to effectively communicate with offshore development team?
Managing quality and delivery times
Managing quality and delivery times in outsourced blockchain projects presents a unique set of challenges. Unlike traditional software development, blockchain projects typically involve complex integrations with existing systems, intricate smart contract logic, and the critical need for strong security. These complexities can lead to unexpected delays and quality issues if not managed carefully.
Ensuring code quality is critical, as flaws in smart contracts can have serious financial ramifications. Likewise, meeting delivery deadlines is essential to remain competitive in the ever-changing blockchain market. Delays can lead to missed market opportunities, increased development expenses, and a loss of investor confidence.
Furthermore, the inherent complexity of blockchain technology can make it difficult for clients to effectively judge the progress and quality of the work being done, which can lead to a mismatch between expectations and deliveries.
How to mitigate it?
- Do your homework before committing to anything.
- Look for an outsourcing partner with a history of hiring top talent, as this can have a major influence on the caliber and prompt completion of your project.
- Lay out defined deliverables, acceptance criteria, and functional and non-functional requirements in your comprehensive project specifications. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and helps prevent scope creep.
- Put agile development methodologies like Scrum and Kanban into practice. They promote iterative development, regular communication, and continuous feedback, resulting in greater flexibility and adaptability throughout a project.
- Implement frequent code reviews by experienced blockchain developers to guarantee code quality, adherence to coding standards, and the identification of any vulnerabilities.
How much does it cost to outsource blockchain development services?
Depending on a number of variables, the cost to outsource blockchain development services can vary. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Below are some of the main factors that influence costs:
| Factors | Description |
| Project complexity | Complex smart contracts, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), or enterprise-grade blockchain solutions will cost more than simple blockchain applications such as token creation or basic cryptocurrency wallets. |
| Project scope | The cost of your project is directly affected by its size and scope. Larger projects with more features and functions cost more because they require more time and resources. |
| Technology stack | The choice of blockchain platform (Ethereum, Solana, Hyperledger Fabric, etc.), programming languages (Solidity, Rust, Go), and other technologies used in the project can affect the cost. Some technologies require more specialized knowledge, which may result in higher fees. |
| Team size and composition | The total cost also depends on the number of developers, their seniority (junior, mid-level, or senior), and the presence of other experts (project managers, UI/UX designers, and QA testers). |
| Development location | Hourly rates can change when outsourcing to different parts of the world. For example, development rates in India are often lower than in North America or Western Europe. |
| Contracting model | Various contracting models, including time and materials, fixed price, and dedicated team, can affect the cost structure. |
| Maintenance and support | Ongoing maintenance, support, and upgrades beyond the original development period will also add to the final cost. |
Let’s look at a scenario to demonstrate the aspects that influence blockchain development outsourcing expenses.
Consider “Company X” a US-based startup that specializes in organic products and hopes to develop a blockchain-based supply chain tracking system. This system would allow customers to track the origin and route of their products by scanning a QR code. Several important aspects will influence the cost of the project.
A basic tracking system that records the position of the product at each stage of the supply chain would cost less than one that included features such as temperature monitoring, quality certifications, or interaction with current inventory software. For example, if “Company X” requires automatic temperature warnings or ERP connectivity, project complexity and development effort will increase.
A pilot program with one product and a small network of farms will be less expensive than a full-scale launch with many products and a huge network of suppliers, which requires more research, testing, and infrastructure. Choosing a popular platform, such as Ethereum, with a larger developer pool, can be less expensive than selecting a niche platform that requires specialized skills. The programming languages and libraries used are also important considerations.
A small team of senior developers charges higher hourly rates than a larger team comprised of junior and mid-level workers. Adding additional responsibilities, such as project managers, UX/UI designers, and QA testers, will increase costs. Outsourcing to markets with affordable rates, such as India, is often less expensive than outsourcing to North America or Western Europe.
Similarly, a fixed-price contract provides budget certainty but less flexibility for modifications, while a time-and-materials contract provides greater flexibility but less predictability.
In conclusion, the final cost of “Company X” will be determined by a combination of the following factors: desired features, initial deployment scale, chosen technology, team composition and location, and contract type. Each component adds up to the total investment required for your blockchain supply chain system.
Key Takeaways:
- Outsourcing blockchain development has no fixed costs.
- The chosen technology stack, complexity, and scope of the project are important factors that affect costs.
- Cost is also greatly influenced by the hiring model and development site.
- Obtaining comprehensive quotes and proposals from multiple outsourcing companies is essential to compare costs and services.
- Don’t focus solely on the lowest price. Consider the provider’s experience, competence, and reputation while ensuring quality and project success.
Knowing these factors can help you determine more accurate cost estimates for your blockchain development project and make smart outsourcing decisions.
How to find the right blockchain development partner?
Choosing the right blockchain development partner is a key decision that will greatly influence the success of the project. It is not enough to find a team that can write code; you also need to find a partner who knows your vision, shares your values, and can negotiate the complexity of the blockchain ecosystem.
Here’s how you can make the right choice:
Evaluate the partner’s tech expertise
Look for a partner who has a solid understanding of blockchain basics. Inquire about their experience with different blockchain platforms and development languages. Examine their portfolio of related projects, paying special attention to the complexity and success of implementations.
Don’t hesitate to ask for technical documentation, code samples, or even a technical interview with their development team. A strong partner will be open about their strengths and willing to showcase their knowledge.
Consider the culture fit
Technical knowledge is necessary, but it’s also critical to choose a partner whose work style, communication practice, and overall culture match yours. A good cultural fit promotes greater cooperation, smoother communication, and a more productive work environment.
During initial conversations, pay close attention to how the potential partner communicates, how responsive they are, and how well they seem to understand your company’s requirements.
Look for a partner who is proactive, engaged, and has a genuine interest in the success of the project. A strong cultural fit can remove any communication barriers, resulting in a more peaceful and productive collaboration.
Weight heavily on transparency
Transparency is the foundation of trust in all business-to-business relationships, but it’s especially important when outsourcing blockchain development. You need a partner who is upfront and honest about their methods, their progress, and the obstacles they face.
Choose a partner who offers frequent updates, clear reporting, and open communication channels. They should be open to sharing their development processes, testing procedures, and security protocols. Transparency not only builds trust, but it also allows you to stay informed about the project’s progress, spot potential problems early on, and make informed decisions.
Think long term
Choosing a blockchain development partner is about more than just finishing a single project; it’s about forming a long-term strategic partnership. The blockchain environment is continually changing, and you’ll certainly want ongoing support, maintenance, and development as your project expands and new technologies emerge.
As a result, look for a partner who is dedicated to developing a long-term relationship, understands your business goals, and can offer ongoing assistance and guidance. Consider their ability to scale their staff to accommodate your future demands and their dedication to being at the forefront of blockchain innovation.
A long-term relationship can provide essential stability, continuity, and insight as you navigate the ever-changing world of blockchain technology.
Also Read: 3 Steps to Hire an Offshore Software Development Team
Conclusion
Building successful blockchain solutions in 2025 will require a significant amount of expertise and resources. If your organization struggles with recruiting talent, project complexity, or staying focused on core business goals, outsourcing blockchain development services can be a cost-effective and efficient option.
By working with a specialized provider, you gain access to essential talent, can grow your team as needed, and shorten your time to market, eventually increasing your ROI. If you’re ready to simplify your blockchain development process and achieve tangible business results, outsource blockchain development services right away.
