New York Times Posts Blockchain Related Job Offering, Removes It Later

Blockchain and cryptocurrency, over the years, has gained a lot of popularity and use cases, so much so, that even the experts of the field have said that though cryptocurrency is the main use case of the blockchain, people across various sectors are gradually understanding the true potential of the technology. According to recent reports, a leading news outlet of USA, the New York Times, has posted an advertisement for job offers looking for people well versed with blockchain, in order to develop an internal proof-of-concept (PoC).

But what remains to be understood is why the original postings were taken down and thus made unavailable, only a few hours after they were posted. The details of the post, however, can be found on Indeed. The role had been listed as “Lead, Blockchain Exploration” and was seeking candidates who had a diverse skill set in at least three of the following areas:

Journalism, product, design, software development, hardware engineering and user research. Another criterion which was mentioned was that applicants had to have professional experience with ”real-world application” of blockchain or other emerging technologies. The listing clarifies that the expected term of the position is just 12 months, in which time they are expected to recruit stakeholders for the project as well as advisors from academia, other news agencies along with social media corporates. The listing states that the NYT is seeking “a forward-looking leader who will help envision and design a blockchain-based proof of concept for news publishers.”

NYT has been known to frequently publish editorials from blockchain and cryptocurrency sceptics, This announcement regarding the recruitment thus came as a surprise for many, who regularly follow the news agency. However, it must also be noted that the company also keeps up to date with major industry events and has recently produced several insightful reports such as its investigation of Facebook’s alleged cryptocurrency project.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.