Time and again we have seen how every technological advancement had modified the status of employment. For instance, the boom in software development evolved the way organizations ran operations.
Time and again we have seen how every technological advancement had modified the status of employment. For instance, the boom in software development evolved the way organizations ran operations. The internet boom and advancement of cloud technology made the way for remote collaboration across the globe. It affected the international workforce to improve their computer literacy to fit the needs of the hour.
Web 2.0 (the era of the World Wide Web we currently live in) along with the internet of things created opportunities for small businesses to thrive and develop. We are all aware of how Google, Facebook and YouTube transformed the modes of businesses and employment. While Web 2.0 is still prevalent, the next iteration of the World Wide Web has begun in the form of Web3.
Web3 will be powered by blockchain technology and digital assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs. At the core it promises to break the monopoly that big tech giants like Google and Facebook enjoy in Web2 and instead, create an internet of shared wealth and ownership. According to an article on Harvard Business Review, Web3 will transform the way we work and DAOs will lead this revolution from the front line.
DAO is the acronym for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. At the moment, we see the manifestation of DAOs mostly in decentralized finance or DeFi. Projects like MakerDAO and Compound work on a decentralized model sans a hierarchical structure. Compare it to the organizational infrastructure of legacy businesses where the founders and owners are on the top, then comes the board of directors, followed by stakeholders and so on. The structure is pyramidical with employees as the bottom feeders.
In DAOs, the control, ownership and distribution of resources take place linearly on a horizontal line. Therefore, those who are contributing to the success of a DAO are equal shareholders and are not dictated by a handful of people at the top level. Imagine it as having an equity share in a business; only in DAOs, this benefit is not centralized but distributed. An individual’s contribution could be in accordance with their professional aptitude like an employee. But the status they will get will be that of a shareholder.
Users of DAOs also take active part in their governance, thus removing the scope for bias. Smart Contracts and blockchain safeguards the ethos of a decentralized organization. They combine forces to create a transparent and public ledger to ensure information of a DAO’s treasury and financial status is out in the open. Etherscan.io, for instance, is used widely to verify the status of DAOs built on Ethereum. DAOs will be the crucial life force of the Web3 economy because they are the true examples of decentralization.
Today we understand creators’ economy through influencers who collaborate with several projects and strengthen their marketing efforts. However, in Web2 the opportunities for such collaborations are limited. Not to mention, influencers strike deals with centralized organizations and thrive entirely on the ethos of trust. Let’s suppose a content creator strikes a deal that sees them receiving 30% share of a product’s total sales.
It is not difficult for project owners to manipulate the figure to retain the lion’s share of the profit. The Web3 built on blockchain technology and smart contracts will make these deals trustless and foolproof as project owners will have no scope to deprive promoters of their deserved share. On top of that, Web3 opens such opportunities not just for promoters and influencers, but anyone who can contribute and improve a project.
Web3 will create the work to earn culture facilitated by DAOs where DAOs will develop their native tokens which, in turn, will fuel a contributors’ economy. For instance, a DAO might open opportunities for writers, software developers, marketers, graphic artists etc. As remuneration, these contributors will receive a part of the revenue share depending on the terms of the smart contract in the DAO’s native token or stablecoins. They can convert these tokens to another cryptocurrency or fiat currency via an exchange. They can further decide to stake them or sell them as per their needs.
Web3 will not just be about decentralization of wealth. In terms of its look and feel, it will exemplify the tenets of an immersive internet. According to Shurick Agatipov, the founder of Xsolla, who has now started his Web3 venture with X.LA, the Web3 will be made up of metasites. Users will visit these metasites and see “other visitors interacting with each other, exchanging digital goods, enjoying entertainment and working together.”
To build these metasites, founders will need a diverse set of talents to come together and contribute. One may say, these contributors can also work on a fixed salary like general employees. However, when it comes to attracting the best talents and retaining their commitment, nothing beats a revenue sharing model. And why not, since it reinforces the true spirit of decentralized ownership? This is where revenue share smart contracts come into play and X.LA is focusing on developing them.
X.LA is building a revenue share smart contract to solve user acquisition alignment for counterparties. These contracts link to users in the ecosystem and are written by attribution oracles such as referral links providers, coupon codes providers, digital item providers, etc. Businesses can use these smart contracts to verify and measure the value of each contribution. Contributors can have a clear picture of their quota in the revenue split. Revenue share contract for general purposes is another tool businesses and end users can use to split and receive proceeds, thus establishing a multi-level nested partnership. Apart from these, X.LA has also developed revenue share smart contracts for user-generated content. To put it simply, a comment, post or any social engagement related to a product that generates some interest will see the user generating rewards. This is something crypto projects can use to encourage mass promotional activities.
The future of employment in the Web3 era will be influenced by a work-to-earn culture where employment will not be so much about working under one employer on a fixed salary. Instead, going by the spirit of decentralization, blockchain-based organizations and DAOs will be happy to create jobs based on contributions.
As incentives, contributors will receive the status of “shareholders” rather than subordinates, a connotation attached to the term “employee’’. Revenue share smart contracts will play a significant role in conceptualizing and executing this proposition of Web3 and projects like X.LA are connecting the dots.
For more information, visit X.LA Foundation’s official website.
