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Comment by dgellow | Hacker News Reader

That's not covered by the survey but I'm wondering how much of Rust usage is driven by crypto-currency projects. I'm personally completely convinced by the Rust language and the ecosystem, and decided to bet on it as my main tool for the next decade or so, but I'm also a bit worried that a lot of the money for Rust roles comes from crypto-currency projects (an industry I'm now very sceptical of given the amount of scam/bullshit we've seen during recent years). Not sure if my worries are warranted given my personal bias. Just something I have in mind.

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To my knowledge, most of the people working on Rust, the project, are employed full time at Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft etc. There are a few folks who benefit from sponsorship from some crypto firms but I think that’s the minority.

While it’s a legitimate concern that many jobs appear to be from the crypto industry, I wouldn’t worry too much. Whether they’re scams or not, the entire community benefits from the software they sponsor and open source.

Re: blockchain sponsorship. Minority, yes, but not without weight. For example, current Rust language team leader and library team leader are sponsored by blockchain projects.

See https://medium.com/concordium/the-devx-initiative-rust-ecosy... for details.

Perhaps I'm asking you to trust me, but I can stake my own reputation on the fact that neither Mara not Josh are in any way compromised by this sort of sponsorship. Both of them have been doing incredible work for years, and while I can't speak to Mara's financial situation, Josh gets sponsored by a ton of different companies to do Rust work (including my own, and we have nothing to do cryptocurrency).

Crypto is like the dotcom bubble. Lots of scams, lots of half finished (but well intentioned) crap, and a few projects that might survive into the future and become something useful beyond being a casino with constantly changing odds.

Rust is particularly good for crypto because 1) it is very efficient and 2) ownership semantics let you model things in a way that prevents many of the issues plaguing solidity and etherum.

There will be a crash though, and a lot of the money on Rust will evaporate, but I think this early push will ensure the language survives well into the future.

I fully agree, that's exactly what I'm seeing in the job market for Rust in switzerland. It's unfortunate, but I guess more traditional industries are firmly in the grip of Java etc.

Why would it be worrying? Lack of jobs outside cryptocurrency companies? Language features focused on crypto?

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