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Comment by uptown | Hacker News Reader

Blockai:

https://angel.co/blockai/jobs/32805-back-end-engineer

PRODUCT

Blockai is the first universal blockchain browser. A single platform for using the best blockchain apps, with a bitcoin wallet and social identity to make it simple to use.

We’re making it fun to explore and publish on the blockchain, visualized as a filterable stream. The same way that Netscape took people into the world of the web, and built open-source technologies to support its growth, we are doing the same for the blockchain. Unlike Netscape, we have a clear path to revenue with a bitcoin wallet built right in.

We anticipate 1,000s of amazing applications will be built on the blockchain that will change the status quo of everything on the web. We want Blockai to become the main way people experience those applications.

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> We’re making it fun to explore and publish on the blockchain, visualized as a filterable stream.

Few things are as fun as exploring the blockchain.

> You'll be responsible for the reliability, security and scalability of our platform. You'll also get your hands dirty creating open-source protocols, customer service and whatever else the constantly evolving situation demands.

> - BONUS: BitcoinJS, Multi-Sig, Cryptography, APIs, Automated Tests, C++, HTML/CSS, React.js.

Security, Cryptography, Protocol Design, all for $80k-$100k per year. In SF.

Good luck with that. Anyone in SF with security and crypto experience is easily worth double.

Wait $100k salary with 6% equity at max sounds not bad at all if you believe in their idea. Although I highly doubt they're a once in a decade opportunity that will be changing the world in a better way.

$100k in SF is laughable (for that kind of commitment). If you're not offering $200k minimum, it's not even worth 60 seconds of consideration. Unless you really really believe in that 6%. But man you really shouldn't.

Edit: To back this up a little more:

To buy a median house in SF you need to make ~$142k.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/08/m...

The 95th percentile in income is WAY higher in SF than anywhere else, and so is the cost of living.

https://twitter.com/conradhackett/status/578004292151341056

My opinion is that if you're not clearly putting me in a comfortable position financially, why would I ever make such a sacrifice?

Really? I'm not in San Francisco so perhaps I'm mistaken. How much is the market rate for a good developer with a few years experience?

I guess it depends how much you value the equity.

I'm a San Franciscan. $100k is indeed low, but $200k is an exaggeration.

If it's an exaggeration then this industry's labor pool is in even worse shape than I suspected.

To put this in context: I'd consider myself average, maybe slightly above in some contexts, below in (many more) others, and my current salary (full-time, all-in) is closer to $200k than $150k. The majority (about 80%) of that is base salary, not "bonus", stocks/options, or benefits. If I can get a ("senior developer" level, not management) job with that compensation, the people in this valley who are much better than me (and that would be most, or at least many, many others) ought to be able to command significantly more.

Are you based in the Bay Area? Do you work at a large company (Google, Apple, MS)?

Yes to the first, no to the second (I would almost certainly not qualify for the ones you listed--not for lack of talent, as I forgot more math by the time I took my PhD qualifying exams than most CS graduates ever learn, but for other reasons).

It is my second job in this area, and I'm a bit (~15%) better compensated this time than last.

Start up then? :)

I'm not sure how you're expected to value equity - most of the stuff I find online recommends valuing it at basically zero - or what the market is like in San Fran, but where I live, you can do quite a bit better than $100k and still have work-life balance. So the only real compensation they're selling is the dubious honor of working for yet another startup that thinks it will change the world.

$100k for 60+ hour work weeks in San Francisco does not as that great an opportunity. And $100k is the top of the salary range.

Assuming 50 weeks worked per year (giving you 2 weeks of vacation/holidays), that's only $100000/(60x50) = $33.33/hr.

If you have the type of resume they're looking for and aren't asking ~$50/hr, you're either not very good, or more likely selling yourself short.

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