Introduction
If 2021 saw the rise of Web3 as a catchphrase, 2022 will see the beginning of Web3’s values having a long-lasting influence on how society functions. The way people interact with their jobs is one such area that is ready for change.
Technology and philosophy together define Web3. Blockchain technology is used to create an internet that is decentralised. The vast majority of its use cases, which include crypto, decentralised finance, and non-fungible tokens, have not yet been deployed.
The ownership and control of Web3 data and platforms are decentralized, in contrast to Web2.0 (content generated by the user) and the early internet (material that is static in nature), both of which were owned and managed by single entities. Web3 is a technology that is also a social movement because it is “driven by the people.”
Looking deeper into how this Web3 mindset has been manifested, I forecast a shift in how individuals view their jobs and the effects that will have on the labour market as a whole.
Culture and Values
The Great Resignation, which involved a widespread voluntary resignation of employees, occurred in 2021. An unprecedented 4.4M people in America lost their employment in the month of September. The ideals and ethos of web3 will be sought after by many of the resigned employees as they hunt for new ways to make ends meet, whether they realize it or not.
Web3 projects tend to be more inclusive and supportive because shared ownership is a shared responsibility, a person’s performance is highly correlated with the caliber of contributors in their network. A more collaborative work atmosphere is produced by this dynamic.
The founder of Black Freelancer, Sterling Smith, concurred: “A number of my friends who have left their employment over the span of almost two years have told me that they did so in search of careers that would give them more control over their life, both professionally and personally. They left their standard office hours jobs. They desired demanding jobs with initiatives that more closely matched their interests and were available on their terms”.
Workers who have felt burnt out and disengaged from work can engage with businesses that recognize that the future of work will be both decentralized and truly diverse through Web3 talent networks like Black Freelancer.
For younger generations, this cultural movement is particularly significant. They stated that the bulk of Web3 users, Millennials and Gen Z, want to feel like they belong at work and have the respect and freedom to work independently. Web3’s main objective is about collaborating, showing reciprocity and ensuring cooperation, hence Web3 enterprises are well-positioned to attract a significant portion of the youthful talent.
Freelance Economy
Distributed, Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are one example of the Web3 principle in action. Work, decision-making, and financial activities are decentralized and community-driven in DAOs. This approach has spawned a sort of new freelance economy where individuals can work for as many DAOs as they wish while earning money from various sources according to their preferences.
Because no centralized corporations are responsible for establishing those jobs in this new freelancing economy, the people who carry out the task are the owners of the finished product. The majority of people in the gig economy make an hourly or per-gig income, according to Lipton. Because freelancers will own a portion of the market, Web3 earnings are not linear. Additionally, freelancers employed by Web3 projects may receive a mix of stable currency and tokens, and some of those tokens may have unlimited upside.
This was explained in more detail by David Phelps, a Web3 investor: “Web3 is, in some ways, an extension of the gig economy, which over the years has atomized workers into independent contractors. It views every employee as an independent contractor who is capable of creating their own projects or selling their skills. But in another way, Web3 is a strong criticism of the gig economy since it gives workers an opportunity to band together and assist one another in ways they’ve rarely had before. In a way, Web3 serves as a model for developing cooperatives sustainably by making it simple to raise money from groups who share their beliefs.”.
Professional Development
Less than 40% of the workforce will be up-skilled in 2020, according to an Udemy survey, even though 80% of employees say they would feel more engaged at work if they could learn new skills. The time and money spent on learning contribute to this estrangement, in part. The learn-to-earn approach from Web3 provides an answer for that as well.
The manner that earning tokens encourages people to master Web3 technology fascinates him, Stirling Smith said. For instance, exchanges like Coinbase use token awards to train current customers on new features and onboard new users. For the purpose of providing grants, investments, and tokens to entrepreneurs who learn how to create new enterprises within their ecosystems, some projects have raised hundreds of millions of dollars. These investments in their communities essentially serve as a down payment for future network adoption and growth.
The effects of this learn-to-earn strategy were discussed by Phelps: “Three main issues have confronted traditional EdTech companies: growing what is often best done in one-on-one or small group settings; keeping students who swiftly graduate on to new opportunities, and recruiting users organically when the end-user is not the client.”.
Learn-to-earn has the ability to address each of these problems while also attracting new users by offering incentives for students to share their knowledge with one another. Additionally, it broadens access to education for all people worldwide.
Conclusion
With that, we’ve come to the end of this article! The main philosophical ideas of Web3, despite the fact that it is still a relatively young field and there is much noise and rumours surrounding it, have the ability to advance many current systems. I’m interested to see how the distributed, collaborative components of Web3 will affect the future of work in 2022 and beyond, given the impact that work has on our mental health and way of life.
