- Harsha Abeygunesekera on training developers to meet industry demands
While most would say dropping out of medical school is a bad idea and advise anyone to “just stick with it, it’s only a few years”, Harsha Abeygunesekera knew it wasn’t the right path for him. Despite warnings againt it, he dropped out of med school and went on to have four successful e-commerce businesses and become a two-time founder.
He’s the founder of help.lk, which is one of the most innovative education techology platforms in Sri Lanka. He also recently crossed paths with an old friend and joined forces to form a start up by the name Metana.io which provides users with a blockchain masterclass.
In conversation with Brunch, Abeygunesekera told us that he is a big fan of self-directed learning and building an impactful business. Sharing a fun fact about himself, he told us that he tends to be a bit of a freak when it comes to efficiency. All these quirks are what motivated the creation of Metana.io – a successful blockchain business in Sri Lanka.
As the name suggests, blockchain is nothing but a growing chain of blocks (records) that holds information of transactions taking place over the web. Putting it simply for us, Abeygunesekera said: “Every block (a record) contains data in the form of coding that is organised in a chronological manner.”
He further explained that a blockchain is essentially a digital ledger (database) of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain.
“Each block in the chain contains a number of transactions, and every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s ledger,” he stated, adding that its main purpose is to allow fast, secure, and transparent peer-to-peer transactions. Summarising it, Abeygunesekera told us that it is basically a trusted, decentralised network that allows for the transfer of digital values such as currency and data, noting that the future of the web is “web3”, which is also powered by blockchain technology.
On the topic of the inspiration behind the company, Abeygunesekera acknowledged that learning blockchain development is hard, especially when there are too many resources with differing lessons. What they have done at Metana is simple – they’ve created a set programme for existing developers to learn about blockchain development in just four months. Essentially, Metana trains existing engineers to be blockchain developers in a four-month project-based boot-camp programme.
Abeygunesekera also informed us that developers from Sri Lanka or anywhere in the world can join their programme. “After completing the programme, they have the opportunity to work remotely for companies based in the US, Canada, and Europe, thereby earning in foreign currency, which in this economy is the only way to survive,” he noted. He further informed us that existing blockchain engineers earn a salary of over $ 200,000 a year.
When talking about what’s in store for the company, Abeygunesekera pointed out that since blockchain technology has already diverged into many sectors and is aiming to spread further, these industries look out for professional developers who can use and apply blockchain technology.
“The future of a developer for blockchain technology is immense and it is not going to decrease in the near future,” he told us, noting that industries like banking, security, real estate, education, healthcare, supply chain, and now even voting have started applying blockchain technology into their systems and are going to continue using it. “The scope for the professional developer is going to open up, with a lot of opportunities in various sectors and industries. The prospects will be large in number for the developer,” he stated.
He reiterated that the developer can innovate and create even more amazing applications and make them beneficial for the economy and industries across the globe. Hence, to say it again, the future is blooming.
