Crypto Creators and The Tokenization of Work
What NFTs can tell us about the future of work…
This article is an excerpt from the original article “NFTs and the Tokenization of Work” from the Workforce Futurist Newsletter.
Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Token Holder
Christie’s became the first major auction house to offer a standalone NFT (Non-Fungible Token) work of art.
The vast, pixelated work called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” is by an artist known as Beeple, his collection of 20 works recently sold for $3.5m.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique, digital items with blockchain-managed ownership. Examples include collectibles, game items, digital art, event tickets, domain names, crypto kitties, essays (see below), and even socks.
As Jesse Walden explains, NFTs make it possible for creators to retain ownership of their content, without limiting the propagation of their files across the internet. They offer creators a viable alternative to platform-driven monetization.
According to Olive Allen, a visual artist and crypto art pioneer, who created the image in this article.
I did that [first] drop. I priced it. I determined scarcity myself. After me, people were doing the same thing.
What might tokens in the art-world mean for the future of work?
The Crypto Creators vs The Global Workforce
Some have suggested that the so called creator economy is the future of work, and this way of facilitating ownership rights for assets will be a catalyst.
Packy McCormick explains how NFTs work, and their role in the rise of the solo corporation.
On the face of it, this looks far fetched.
The global labour force might be about 3.4 billion people.
Those working independently in the creative industries is relatively tiny.
Then there are those who work, but are not in the formal labour force — the unpaid workers, the livestreamers, content creators, playbourers, and independent shopkeepers, as I described in Unleashing The Decentralized Workforce.
So crypto creators are a small subset of a small subset of a subset.
However, the way creators are making a living and selling directly to customers could be a model of how other industries work in the future.
The Tokenization of Work
We are now seeing platforms making it easier for people to earn income.
From Shopify for solo shopkeepers, to WurkNow for oil-rig workers, Dumpling, allowing people to set up their own supermarket delivery business, and, Braintrust, which is a user-owned talent network.
I made the case for tokenized user-owned digital work platforms a few years ago.
As new platforms and technology develops, the principles remain the same.
New technology will enable a major shift in how we rethink work. This includes decentralized finance, tokenization, digital credentials and peer-to-peer platforms.
Although the crypto creatives only make up a small part of the economy, and global workforce, they illustrate how technology will lead to disintermediation between buyers and sellers.
In the broader supply of work tasks, this will reduce the need for intermediaries, making the relationship between employer and worker more direct and transactions smoother and more efficient.
Many will make the transition from working as an employee, to working off a platform, to running their own solo company.
My research with Don Tapscott and the Blockchain Research Institute provides a critique of how the staffing and technology industry uses our career data. It describes how blockchain technology enables and the implications for careers and ‘the firm’ (Spoiler Alert — it shrinks).
As work unbundles, it will rebundle in interesting ways, enabling new work ecosystems of workers.
The creator economy narrative is all about enabling individuals to flourish — but the real story will be the amazing new teams that form.
As more people choose to leave, or have to leave, the formal labour force, they will need these platforms for income. We are not all going to sell our art at Christies, but some of us might make a living without the need for a boss.
Find Out More
Thank you for reading this article, if you enjoyed it, you might like to
- Read the full article here “NFTs and the Tokenization of Work”
- Subscribe to the Workforce Futurist Newsletter for regular updates on themes related to this article.
- Show your appreciation 👏 and spread the word which helps to support my research!
- The image is by the artist Olive Allen, you can see more of her artwork here.
Andrew Spence is an independent Workforce Strategist.
He publishes Workforce Futurist Newsletter.
You can connect with him on Twitter, or on LinkedIn.
