Meet Anastasia Green, Disrupting Recruitment With Blockchain | Interview With The Founder Of AuraCoins

Salih Sarikaya | Interview

Blockchain is the hottest topic around Silicon Valley. But when compared to interest and need, there are not enough development skills and subject domain experts in the area. Even if you think that you have found the right guys, there is not enough resource to evaluate the skills, which is a bigger issue right now in the sector.

In the past few months, we have been dealing with sexism, discrimination, and racism news in Silicon Vally. And this notoriety is damaging the future of tech innovation in the Bay Area. Recruiting is one of the hot spaces that inequality is taking place. I believe Blockchain will help to solve the lack of transparency in recruiting.

I recently talked with Anastasia Green, Co-Founder of AuraCoins -Upwork on Blockchain, to learn more about the recruitment in blockchain space. Her insights not only cover the recruitment in blockchain, but also, how this new technology can transform the unfair conditions in the workspaces.

Russia and Ukraine are so popular when it comes to blockchain developer ecosystem. And Anastasia has key access to blockchain developer space. She is trying to disrupt the recruiting environment for a more secure and trusted future. I’m really impressed by her vision and experience. Anastasia is in a key point for finding the right skills in the right time.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and experience?

For the past 9 years, I’ve been involved in tech as a product and project manager, sales person and even startup-evangelist. Working in teams from 2 to 200 people across different niches from e-commerce to games. Then 5 years ago I started building my own startups, some of them were successful, some failed really bad. And here I am, hands-on in blockchain and HRtech for the past 2 years in the epicenter of the technology thrive, Silicon Valley.

So I guess, my background is wide, diverse and not as common as usual. Maybe one day I will add Stanford graduate label to my background, but not today. Coming from Ukraine I think I have that rebel gene that has been pushing me to disrupt and go against the rules all my life.

How did you meet with crypto and blockchain?

That’s my favorite story. Imagine, 2013, Ukraine, my apartment and a couch on the floor. Our friend Andrii Zamovsky, gathering us on the couch in front of his laptop with a ppt open. And starts an educational lecture about middle man, banking system, and decentralization. Then he tells us about Bitcoin that at this moment can be used mostly on buying drugs and weapons, and Blockchain that will remove governments. And we, as now I realize, being idiots, are laughing at him thinking that he is a crazy nerd. Now Anrdrii is successful founder of Ambisafe, leading blockchain development company with several widely used products.

That was my first intro to the blockchain. Then 3.5 years later Andrii came to me again, now in a fancy coffee shop in downtown SF and told me about ICO and crypto. This time I couldn’t ignore him. I think I can tell that he is my Blockchain Godfather. 😀

What was the main incentive behind founding AuraCoins?

We were in HRtech for a while when we started Aura, disrupting engagement of employees using AI. But I saw much more massive problem in the market. Several cultural, technological and financial shifts are happening in the world and there was nobody who would be addressing to solve this problem. I deeply feel all problems that we are solving in Aura. Underestimated human capital in developing markets, extremely high transactions fees, fake reputation in professional profiles, bored and not engaged millennial workforce… I can talk forever about how our “workplace” is broken, non-productive and non-equal. My partner always calls me an old-school girl because of my belief system, but I truly want to change the world on a global scale, and everybody who is joining our team has the same values.

What are the biggest challenges when finding Blockchain skills?

If you are asking about hiring blockchain engineers. There are simply not enough of them in the world and it’s even harder to assess their skills then skills anyone else because it’s a new technology.

Who is your main target market right now? Are big corporates interested in hiring Blockchain skills?

IBM, JP Morgan, even Google are hiring blockchain engineers. Although while we are at an early stage of our product we are working with companies who are in our niche – post-ICO blockchain startups.

How do you test the people who you want to hire?

Aura uses an algorithm to analyze skills used in GitHub repositories, data from the Linkedin profile and recently we signed a partnership with Talent Bot Chinese company analyzing CVs. Tech skills can be proven by completing tasks, and upgraded by completing missions – gigs through the platform.

How Can Blockchain bring transparency for recruiting world?

Well, the biggest issue in hiring is in skills assessment and background check. Bringing skill set, reviews and experience to digital professional profile on blockchain ads level of transparency and extra trust in the resume of the candidate.

How Will Blockchain Change Recruiting?

Possibly, there will be no recruiters and headhunters in a few years. A lot of recruiting work can be automated and that’s what been happening for the past 6 years in HRtech. The workplace will become more distributed and global and will require tools to hire and assess talent on a distance fast and cheap.

You can follow Anastasia on Linkedin, Twitter or Instagram.

AuraCoins is a decentralized, end-to-end employment network with a mission to match the world’s best talent with the right career opportunities to create synergistic workplaces within the technology industry. Aura is the next generation workplace for future innovators. With the power of emotional recognition and machine learning, they build unique profiles to match creators and entrepreneurs. Transparent transactions on the blockchain and smart contracts ensure trust in remote teams.

Visit AuraCoins: https://www.auracoins.io/

I’m into tech, blockchain, and crypto. Inspiring stories are welcome. You can tweet @SalihSarikaya

Husband, Father, Friend | Writer at TowardsDataScience and Hackernoon | Salih Sarikaya is a data &product & media professional with many years of experience | Top Tech Influencers of USA (CES2017-Onalytica) | Key Blockchain Influencer (Business Insider, DisruptorDaily, TokenTarget, KLOUT, MOZ) | Entrepreneur | Author | Pro Member of PEN America & SPJ | Computational Sociology MA

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