Blockchain Engineers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 35% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 95% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The conversations, in-person and hands-on work, about 2% of the time, stays with people.
Maintain and support distributed and decentralized blockchain-based networks or block-chain applications such as cryptocurrency exchange, payment processing, document sharing, and digital voting. Design and deploy secure block-chain design patterns and solutions over geographically distributed networks using advanced technologies. May assist with infrastructure setup and testing for application transparency and security.
$116,580 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
Reviewed on October 19, 2026: what each task is made of, and what handing it over would ask.
A typical 40-hour week
- AI could take on0 h
- A person checks AI's work14 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet25 h
- Stays with people1 h
Blockchain Engineers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 0 hours, 14 hours become checking its work, 25 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 1 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Evaluate processes and risks (about 2 h, a person checks); Assess security threats (about 2 h, a person checks); Update integration applications (about 2 h, a person checks).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 90%
- 8%
- 2%
- 0%
- 0%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
What handing it over would take, now
The 35% within reach splits by what a model would need. The dates, pace and reliability follow the controls above. Estimates.
of the working time. The material can be handed to a model and the result handed back.
of the working time. The model has to be connected to the system the work lives in.
is conversation short enough by length. This site leaves conversation with people, so it is not in the total.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 2%. Today's estimate: 35%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.064% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 204th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 2 of its 17 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.068% to 0.064% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 17 |
| Released March 2025 | none | n/a | 0 of 17 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 17 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 17 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 17 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.068% | 196 of 434 | 2 of 17 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.064% | 204 of 447 | 2 of 17 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates almost none of this job's working time as physical work, so robots do not reach it.
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
What changes for the people in this job
From the task-by-task review, by the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five. It says which parts of the work stay with people and which change, not whether anyone keeps a job: that depends on decisions no data set can see.
What stays with people
1% of the working time: the conversation, in-person and hands-on parts of the tasks.
- Plan systems with architects, the conversation, 1%
What becomes checking the machine
95% of the working time: desk work a model could do by then, in tasks where a mistake costs something or a licensed person signs. A person checks it.
- Assess security threats, severe if wrong, 9%
- Update integration applications, costly if wrong, 9%
- Build failure handlers, severe if wrong, 9%
- Test security and performance, severe if wrong, 9%
- Script deployments across nodes, severe if wrong, 9%
- Design secure transaction patterns, severe if wrong, 8%
What to learn
- Reviewing work you did not do yourself. The tasks under What becomes checking the machine, where a mistake costs something, stay a person's to check: spotting what a draft gets wrong is a skill of its own.
- Briefing a model and checking its drafts. About 90% of the time is documents and data, the part models reach first: writing a clear brief, giving the right material, and checking what comes back.
- Judgment where errors are severe. Some tasks are severe if wrong. Knowing when not to trust an output matters more there than speed.
Your own version of this job: read it against your job description. The headline is free; the full personal report, every task with its timeline and what to learn, is $19 (a sample).
The tasks
Sorted by . 17 tasks from .
| Task | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assess blockchain threats, such as untested code and unprotected keys.Reading the code and the key handling for weaknesses.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 9% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.5 work days | Documents 100% | 55%Half by now |
| Update client and server applications responsible for integration and business logic.Changing the code.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 9% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.5 work days | Documents 100% | 55%Half by now |
| Implement catastrophic failure handlers to identify security breaches and prevent serious damage.Writing the code that catches breaches and failures.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 9% | 1.3 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | Documents 100% | 44%Half by Dec 2026 |
| Test the security and performance of blockchain infrastructures.Writing and running the tests and reading what they show.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 9% | 1.3 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | Documents 60%, systems 40% | 44%Half by Dec 2026 |
| Automate the deployment of software updates over geographically distributed network nodes.Writing the deployment scripts and running them across the nodes.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 9% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1 work week | Documents 70%, systems 30% | 28%Half by Apr 2027 |
| Design and deploy blockchain design patterns to make transactions secure, transparent, and immutable.Designing and coding the patterns.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 9% | 2.5 work days5 h to 1.7 work weeks | Documents 100% | 15%Half by Aug 2027 |
| Design and verify cryptographic protocols to protect private information.Designing the protocol and proving it holds.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 9% | 3.3 work days6.7 h to 2.5 work weeks | Documents 100% | 9%Half by Dec 2027 |
| Develop a maintainable code base using object-oriented design principles, practices, or patterns.Writing and structuring the code.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 3.3 work days6.7 h to 2 work weeks | Documents 100% | 10%Half by Oct 2027 |
| Design and develop blockchain technologies for industries such as finance and music.Designing and coding the systems.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 9% | 1.7 work weeks2.1 work days to 1.2 work months | Documents 100% | 1%Half by Jun 2028 |
| Evaluate blockchain processes or risks based on security assessments or control matrix reviews.Reading the assessments and control reviews and judging the risks.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 7% | 6.7 h2.5 h to 2.5 work days | Documents 100% | 69%Half by now |
| Run infrastructure tests to examine the behavior of large peer-to-peer networks.Running the tests on the network and reading the results.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 4% | 1 work day3.3 h to 3.3 work days | Systems 60%, documents 40% | 59%Half by now |
| Design and implement data repositories to integrate data.Designing and coding the data stores.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1 work week | Documents 100% | 28%Half by Apr 2027 |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach. Made of: how the task's time splits among five kinds of doing. Only the documents and systems parts can count as within reach, so a task that is 30% documents can be at most 30% within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
- Federal Executive Branch86,390 people
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services76,660 people
- Management of Companies and Enterprises25,080 people
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services16,520 people
- Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services15,100 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Blockchain Engineers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 35% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 95% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (77% to 98% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Blockchain Engineers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Evaluate processes and risks (69% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Assess security threats (55% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Update integration applications (55% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Blockchain Engineers stay with people?
- Every task has a desk part, so each can come partly within reach; the conversation, in-person and hands-on parts of each task stay with people, about 2% of the working time.
- What should Blockchain Engineers learn as AI takes on more of the work?
- By the job's own task-by-task review, the first things to learn are reviewing work you did not do yourself; briefing a model and checking its drafts; and judgment where errors are severe. By the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five, about 1% of the working time stays with people, 95% becomes checking a model's work and 0% could be handed over with lighter checks. It says which parts of the work change, never whether anyone keeps a job.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Blockchain Engineers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.064% went to this job's tasks, the 204th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 2 of its 17 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 31%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Blockchain Engineers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds almost none of the working time is physical work, so robots do not reach it.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 17 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, reviewed one task at a time on October 19, 2026 for what each is made of (documents, business systems, conversation, in person, hands-on), and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.
Your own version of this job
The page above is the occupation. Your job is your title and what you actually do: give both, and they are read against these tasks in your browser, nothing sent anywhere. The headline is free: how much of your working time is within reach now and by the end of 2028, and how many of the tasks your description names.
The full personal report is $19, to print or save as a PDF: every task with when it comes within reach, which ones your description names, the parts of your description the task list does not cover, what stays with you, what becomes checking the machine and what to learn.