This week, Cybersecurity Ventures released a comprehensive report, Cybersecurity Jobs Report 2018–2021, from the Herjavec Group that found “cybercrime will more than triple the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs, which is predicted to reach 3.5 million by 2021.”

It’s a startling stat considering cybersecurity is increasingly touching every facet of our lives. The good news is this: There are many bright companies trying to tackle the cybersecurity skill gap from non-profits like CompTIA, to government organizations like National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), to private companies. And, here at PolySwarm, we are trying to help solve the problem too.

PolySwarm is built on the concept of what we call a ‘threat bounty,’ which rewards security experts (from individuals to small security teams to large antivirus companies) when they correctly assert on the maliciousness of a digital artifact. Business that subscribe to PolySwarm benefit from the wisdom of the crowd and get fast and accurate answers on potential threats.

This is a novel approach that is not only bridge the cybersecurity labor-market gap, but also aims to deter cybercrime by luring the bad guys away from the dark side. PolySwarm CEO Steve Bassi explains here:

PolySwarm CEO Steve Bassi speaking in an interview at HITCON in 2018 talking about deterring cybercrime and closing the cyber skill gap. (Video footage credit, Block Tempo TV)

Through a crowdsourced network of security experts, PolySwarm created a global community that is allowing people to use their security and software development expertise to generate passive income while helping business better detect threats.

Forbes wrote an article entitled, “How This Startup is Fostering Inclusion Through the Blockchain” detailing how PolySwarm is poised to help close the cybersecurity skills gap. In the article, journalist Lisa Winning says this:

Focused on value through utility and community, PolySwarm is the first blockchain startup giving security experts the ability to compete to solve worldwide security threats.

Winning also explains PolySwarm’s unique proposition in this way:

PolySwarm addresses the growing market need by providing a decentralized, distributed marketplace that anyone can participate in, regardless of the biases we find in the workplace related to background, sex, disability and race. In essence, developers and security experts can be located anywhere internationally. Bounties are given for the successful identification and neutralizing of cyber security and malware threats, meaning specialists actually get paid for their work.

In helping provide a solution to this global dilemma of the cyber skill shortage, PolySwarm is doing the following: