Blockchain has become the number-one "hard skill" that companies look for on LinkedIn.

In a newly released job trends report, LinkedIn researchers analyzed users who are “getting hired at the highest rates” and concluded that blockchain is now the most in-demand "hard skill" for 2020 in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, and Australia.

LinkedIn defines hards skills as ones that "concern an employee’s ability to do a specific task."

Other tech skills – including those focused on cloud computing, AI, UX design, and scientific computing – also made LinkedIn's list. While blockchain was not on LinkedIn's 2019 rankings at all, this year it surpassed other emerging technologies like cloud computing and artificial intelligence, which led the 2019 list.

“Skeptics, and there are many, raise concerns about the lack of standardized protocols, scalability, and excessive energy use,” the report said. “The business world, however, is voting with its jobs, and companies seem to be saying that the potential is worth the gamble.”

The report found that business giants like IBM, Oracle, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Amazon, and American Express are all actively seeking job candidates with blockchain expertise when making hires.

“Blockchain has emerged from the once shadowy world of cryptocurrency to become a business solution in search of problems,” the report stated. “You don’t have to be in financial services to be seeking new hires who have background and expertise in putting blockchain to use.”