In a previous article, I dive deeper into Jobs3. Exploring the difference between Future of Work & Jobs3 and how the two are evolving into a new field of study. It’s still early with lots of hurdles to overcome. But I believe we are at the beginning of a new era of work.

In this article, I have attempted to map out startups operating in jobs3. It’s a work in progress and the list will be updated on an ongoing basis. To make it easier I have chosen one category for each company rather than multiple.

If I have missed anyone, ping me on Twitter!

📚 Upskilling / Reskilling

We are all newbies in web3. Upskilling web3 startups are helping us onboard through learn-to-earn. Reskill our hard (technical) and soft skills (community). We learn together in cohorts and get rewarded through tokens. Examples:

• Learning as a group: BuildSpaces, Product House

• Developer-focused: Web3 University, QuestBook

• Web3 Onboarding/Learn-to-earn: Rabbithole, Layer3, Continuum

• Community leaders: WGMI, Invisible College

💻 Freelancer & Talent

Web3 talent is less about listing prestigious names on your resume and more about showing what you actually can do through on-chain verified credentials. Web3 freelance marketplaces remove middlemen and list bounties. Examples:

• Marketplaces/networks: Braintrust, Chainwhiz, 2c, twali

• On-chain credentials: Incred, POAP, Kudos, Kleoverse, Isoplink, lvl protocol, Galaxe

• Recruitment: Pallet, CryptoJobList, Web3 Career, Proof of Talent

• Invest in talent: Talent Protocol

🌎 Borderless Tools

Blockchain technology is creating a borderless world with cities built on code rather than brick. This will impact how we work & live. Examples:

• Cloud state/city: Nation3,  Metropolis, CityDAO, Phi

• Accommodation: DTravel, Kindred

• Metaverse: SoWork, Metavrse

📋 Project Management

The nature of collaboration is changing. DAOs allow us to complete bounties, earn rewards, and participate in governance. Current web2 solutions don’t cater to these new demands. Examples:

• Project management: Dework, Wonderverse, DeepSkills

• One-stop-shops: Station, Charmverse, Clarity, Colony, SuperDAO, Avenue

• Team mapping: Sobol

✉️ Communications

A lot of native web3 communication platforms look & feel like web2 (think Slack, WhatsApp). But the difference lies in privacy, control, and unlimited communication. Examples:

• Text: MetaWork, Geneva, Skiff, Blockscan Chat, Discord, Telegram

• Video: Element, RoomsMe

• Wallet address organization: Idriss

📇 Back office

Web3 is evolving fast and regulators are struggling to keep up. The back office will play an important role in web3 compliance. New contribution/ownership models require innovative infrastructure around payments, token allocations, and governance. Examples:

• Backoffice: Bulla, Parcel, Gilded, Coordinape

• Payroll & Benefits: Opolis, Utopia

• Investing/treasury: Element, Syndicate, Coinocracy, Juicebox.money, Vincent, Magna

• Governance: Boardroom, Koop, Govrn, Governor DAO, CommonWealth, Aragon, Snapshot, JokeDAO

🕹️ Community-as-a-Service

Communities are everything in web3. Tools are needed to manage, grow, and incentivize group members. Examples:

• Infrastructure: Bonfire, Roll, Guild, Tally Ho

• Management: Collab Land, Intros

• DAOs: FWB, AstroDAO, BanklessDAO, DeveloperDAO, DAOhaus

🎨 Creator Tools

Web3 = the age of the creator. The blockchain allows artists and creatives to monetize online without having to turn to advertisements. Examples:

• Metaverse: Mirror Metaverse, Mona, Spatial

• Art: Zora, Form Function, OpenSea, Fractional, Enjin, Fingerprints, PleasrDAO

• Musicians: Async, Catalog, Sound, Audius, Unchained

• Website-builder: Foundation

• Writing: Mirror

• Social: Yup, Myco

Imagine this: you don’t have a nine-to-five job, or even a steady employer. Instead, you have a series of fun projects, and you rise up every day eager to get on with them. You’re compensated in a mixture of cryptocurrency, token, equity, and fiat currency.

Your colleagues may be scattered across the globe, but collaboration is easy. You see each other online, and you meet in person periodically in important hubs, like New York City, Miami, and Lisbon.

This is the life of an internet citizen living in a borderless and limitless world. Maybe you already live this way. If not, you probably will be soon. This is what I call Jobs3, the progression of Future of Work.

The Evolution of Jobs

History teaches us that revolutions tend to come in series.

Back in the 18th century, the first industrial revolution brought in the age of steam-powered machinery and the factory. Thousands of workers abandoned the countryside so they could live and work in the growing industrial cities. That trend was reinforced by the so-called second industrial revolution, which introduced electric-powered machines. I call this period Jobs1.

In the 20th century, the third industrial revolution ushered us into the age of computing and telecommunications. Manufacturing and factory jobs gave way to office jobs. I call this period Jobs 2.0.

Today, we’re in the middle of another, even more dynamic industrial revolution. The fourth industrial revolution is driven by greater connectivity and by a re-imagining of the internet, especially in areas like blockchain, AI, and crypto-networks. The office is transforming into a collaboration hub. We are shifting to a new model of work, which I call Jobs3 - a limitless labor market for the internet citizen.

Not long ago, we were all hearing a lot about the “Future of Work.” Today, Future of Work, coupled with Web3, is evolving naturally into Jobs3. Here’s what that evolution looks like:

I’m going to drill down and talk about the ways Jobs3 is disrupting our older models, in terms of the internet citizens’ compensation, talent, skillset, location and creator opportunities.

Compensation and Jobs3: Innovative Incentives

The old model of receiving a paycheck in fiat currency once or twice a month is fading away. Instead, the internet citizen will be compensated in the form of a mix of fiat, crypto, tokens, and equity, based on their actual contribution.

A Brief History of the Paycheck

In ancient times, workers were paid in kind – Mesopotamians worked for beer, and Roman soldiers earned salt. Over time, the system evolved so that workers were paid either an hourly wage (for entry-level and manual labor) or a salary (for knowledge workers). The system we know – 9 to 5 work in an office with strict management structures – was introduced for white-collar workers and continued by Web2 companies. Today, though, change is on its way.

The Jobs3 Difference

In the near future, knowledge workers will be paid completing bounties for projects; we can expect workflows to look more agile than ever before. Compensation may largely be based on contribution, rather than on seniority or experience levels.

Startups like Magna make it easy to manage tokens. Platforms like Utopia Labs help DAOs to handle payroll and expense management; other platforms like SuperDAO enable you to start DAOs quickly and Dework helps you manage all your tasks and bounties.

Ultimately, I believe we are going to see much more infrastructure being built out for DAOs. It’s still very early. We can also expect to see more non-compensation, in the form of health insurance and other benefits, being provided through DAOs or community organizations.

Talent and Jobs 3: A Borderless Talent Pool

What really sets the Web3 ecosystem apart is its fluid, borderless character. Web3 levels the playing field and takes back the advantage from people who just happened born in the right city or attended the right school.

What’s most important now is skill and talent. Your work can speak for itself. Build up reputation points by displaying your proof of skill; join a discord server to share your ideas with global communities. You can also apply for grants to fund your work through DAOs.

A Brief History of Cities

For most of human history, talent pools have been concentrated in universities and in large cities; after all, that’s how people could meet, work together, and exchange ideas with one another. Cities grew up around industry, commerce, and centers of knowledge, and ambitious people from around the world flocked to them.

The Jobs 3 Difference

Some things will never change. Cities like New York, London, and Tel Aviv will retain their near-magical status as hubs and will remain critical for collaborative work. However, these mega-cities will have to compete with other cities that can offer a price advantage in form of lower cost of living, or tax incentatitives. We have already seen how cities like Boulder and Tulsa are launching initiatives specifically designed to attract to workers.

Startups like Papaya and Oyster are offering companies tools for seamlessly integrating employees around the world. On CryptoJobsList the internet citizen can find borderless Web3 jobs.

Skillsets and Jobs 3: A Shift to Skills

Traditionally, employers have cared a lot about big, prestigious names. Having an Ivy League education on your resume opened doors. So did working at big-name web2 companies like Google or Facebook.

To some degree that’s still true, but there’s also a major shift underway. Today’s employers are more interested in skills – both the hard skills needed to work in today’s technology, and the soft skills that can’t be replicated by AI.

Having Web3 experience on your resume will count for more than experience with an investment firm like Goldman Sachs. The blockchain will also make it easier for employers to verify skills without checking education or work experience.

A Brief History of Knowledge Work

The term “knowledge workers” was coined in the mid-20th century – it’s a logical extension of the older phrase, “white collar” workers. Knowledge workers use ideas, theories, and data to create better services and products. Because their work is intellectual, rather than physical, knowledge workers can do their jobs from virtually anywhere.

Until recently, knowledge work was relatively new and rare. That’s why some employers tended to want the validation of Ivy League diplomas before they hired anyone for a coveted intellectual job.

The Jobs3 Difference

Today, knowledge workers are in high demand and it’s easy for members of the “doer” generation to prove their worth. Workers with strong “soft” skills, like EQ and critical thinking, are in particular demand, especially as more technical work can be done by AI. More and more people are also seeking out challenging, stimulating Web3 work, now that technology has made it faster and easier to perform the basic work on sustaining humanity.

It’s easy to see a future where our resume is a bit more like a collection of NFTs than a list of schools and employers. Already, startups like POAP allow you to show off your skills through a badge that lives on the blockchain. Enigma helps companies find talent by offering a unique, puzzle-based platform to evaluate candidates based on real-world skills. Layer3 allows you to earn crypto with any skill.

Creators and Jobs3: Ownership

The internet is becoming decentralized, and the big institutions are slowly losing their dominance. That means that individuals with strong creative passions have the time and space to shine. Instead of working through intermediaries, creators of all kinds can share their work directly with their followers.

A Brief History of the Creator Economy

There have always been creatives. In ancient times, and up to the Middle Ages, creatives were often closely tied to religion and were paid by the church. During the Renaissance, artists became more secular and worked for wealthy patrons. By the time of the Industrial Revolution, creatives were employed by big businesses – whether publishing houses, media corporations, or record labels.

The rise of platforms like Substack has meant that journalists, podcaster, and writers can connect directly but more importantly bring their fans with them to new platforms. You could say that Substack is a web2+ platform acting as a bridge between Web2 and Web3.

The Job3 Difference

The shift to a peer-to-peer economy is accelerating thanks to Web3 and its provision for seamless movement of value and assets. Web3 resolves content ownership and makes digital assets portable. In the new creator economy, art, music, and other NFTs can be tokenized so that creators can monetize their work.

The result is a world in which ideas and work product can be exchanged on a global basis, further strengthening the borderless economy. Web3 makes the internet more user-centric and content-friendly and further shifts it from the older model with institutions at the center.

Braintrust removes the middlemen and gives the freelancer ownership of their work. Platforms like Opolis are also liberating freelancers by offering payroll, employment benefits, and membership perks.

Location and Jobs3: The Fluid Work from Anywhere Model

On a political map, the boundaries between countries are as clear as ever. But if you look at the world map through the flow of information and financial activity, borders are largely disappearing.

A Brief History of Place

Until about 12,000 years ago, every human being on the planet was a nomad. The discovery of agriculture, during the Neolithic Revolution drove people to quite literally put down roots and abandon their hunter-gatherer traditions. Roots grew deeper over time: the industrial revolution tied us down to factories and then to offices, where we worked a fixed 9-to-5 schedule in return for a salary. But the urge to wander is an ancient legacy which we all still share.

The Jobs3 Difference

Internet citizens are returning to an ancient way of life: like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, they’re roving and going wherever they can thrive. They’re flocking to cities like Miami, where they can enjoy a healthy lifestyle, low taxes, and crypto-forward thinking. They’re also choosing work that engages them.

As the world moves online, employees have more power and more options. Companies are struggling to hold onto employees – the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics report found that the overall turnover rate is 57.3%. In the past, cities competed to woo businesses, offering them tax breaks to relocate. Today, more cities are skipping the middleman and trying to attract global workers by building amenities like faster broadband and co-working spaces.

Final Thoughts

The future of the internet is human. I believe that Job3 both draws from and feeds into a new internet of value, designed for the full thriving of human diversity – a place where online citizens can build community and find common ground without submerging their differences.

None of us know for certain what the future of technology will look like. What we can say, though, is that the years ahead are likely to be full of change and possibility in the workforce. The Jobs3 revolution is a positive force for good which should encourage us to build the world we want to live in.

If you are building a Jobs3 startup I’d love to hear from you!

A Brief History of Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, & Web3

Pre-Bitcoin Era (1989-2008)

The world’s first “cryptocurrency”, eCash was developed by David Chaum in 1983 to allow people to send money anonymously over the Internet. In 1989, Chaum went on to create DigiCash, and the project started to take off in the mid-90s by when he entered partnerships with large corporations such as Deutsche Bank. However, the general market wasn’t yet ready to adopt this new digital currency and as a result, the project fell apart.

It wasn’t until 1998 the term cryptocurrency was coined and during the same year, Dai Wai launched B-money with a heavy focus on decentralization. Despite the term cryptocurrency outlasting B-money, Dai would go on to become one of the most important names in the history of crypto.

Cryptocurrencies Rises (and collapses) (2008-2018)

The 2008 financial collapse shook the foundations of the financial industry. As traditional money declined, public confidence in banks and financial institutions declined. The same year, a person (or group of people) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto invented the blockchain as the public ledger for bitcoin transactions using Proof-of-Work.

In early 2009, Bitcoin was launched to the public, and the same year the very first cryptocurrency exchange, New Liberty Standard was introduced. It was not until 2011 that true competition to Bitcoin started to emerge with new altcoins (meaning alternative coins to Bitcoin) popping up such as Litecoin. In 2012, the Proof-of-Stake concept was introduced as a safer and more energy-efficient alternative to Proof-of-Work. The same year Coinbase was launched, which today is the largest exchange in the world.

Although conceived in 2013, blockchain Ethereum (co-created by Vitalik Buterin) wasn’t launched until mid-2015. Compared to the blockchain invented to support Bitcoin, developers can implement a significant amount of functionality enabling smart contracts using Ethereum as a protocol.

After an unprecedented boom in 2017, the price of Bitcoin plummeted by 65 percent in early 2018. Nearly all other cryptocurrencies then followed in Bitcoin's footsteps. By Q3 2018, cryptocurrencies had plummeted 80% from their peak in January 2018, making the 2018 cryptocurrency crash worse than the Dot-com bubble's collapse. During these two years, the ICO (initial coin offering) boom also took place with about 1,000 different token projects raising around $22 B. Several of these projects went unremembered, some were outright frauds, and a few are still known today.

Web3 Goes Mainstream (2019-)

In 2019, large enterprises and financial institutions such as Microsoft, JP Morgan, Chase, Amazon, IBM, and Walmart started to make massive investments into cryptocurrency and Ethereum becomes a major focus. During 2020 we saw how cryptocurrency lending went mainstream as a result of the worldwide pandemic when interest rates fell and lending opportunities plummeted. In 2021, the cryptocurrency market cap surpassed $2 T and new ways of using the technology and strategies for generating income are rapidly emerging.

Future of Web3

In the past year there has been a lot of buzz around “web3”. Web3 is described as a new iteration of the internet, based on blockchain technology and incorporating concepts such as decentralization, and token-based economics. According to Crunchbase numbers, in 2021 around $17.9 B was invested in 1,312 deals in web3-related startups up from $2.1 B and 790 deals in 2020. In 2022, we have so far seen $173 M poured into 34 deals.

Criticism of Web3

Optimistic developers, investors, and early adopters imagine a decentralized future in which the technologies that enable Bitcoin and Ethereum will break up the concentrated power of today’s tech giants. However, others have a more pessimistic view of the space and believe we will see a similar bubble to the “dot-com” boom. Some argue that there have already been several cycles of decentralization and recentralization in the tech industry. For example, the personal computer decentralized computing by creating a commodity PC architecture that anyone could build and that no one controlled. However, Microsoft was able to recentralize it and made huge profits. People argue that we are about to see the exact same thing happening in the web3 space.

Blockchain as a technology itself is also being questioned. For example, blockchain networks can’t expand on a large scale without centralizing. Ethereum has been compared to an Atari 2600 from the 1970s in compute power. In terms of bandwidth blockchain technology is vastly more expensive and complex to maintain than centralized current solutions. Lastly, storage is another concern for blockchain technology.

Basic Blockchain Technology Overview

Essentially, a blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computers. These transactions are very difficult to change, hack, or cheat. Blockchain technology was invented to facilitate Bitcoin. However, many new blockchain protocols all with their unique features have been launched in recent years.

Proof-of-Work & Proof-of-Stake

The two most widely used consensus engines for blockchains today are PoW and PoS. In a PoW system, the goal is to become the first person to produce a new block on the blockchain (miner). In a PoS system, being the first person to produce a block is replaced by the competition to attract the native cryptocurrency. This is known as a stake and allows the network to operate without large amounts of electricity. It’s the network's total stake value that provides it with security. Moreover, in PoS there are two additional reasons why the stake of the validator is important. Validators' stake amounts are directly proportional to their chances of being elected to add new transactions to the ledger, thereby influencing how much reward they earn. Validators' stakes also serve as collateral to disincentivize adverse behaviors. The higher the collateral staked, the greater the likelihood that validators will adhere to network norms, thereby ensuring chain security.

Since critics have pointed out the negative externalities created by PoW’sits security model and lack of decentralization, PoW has fallen out of favor, and blockchains are transitioning from PoW to PoS consensus mechanisms. As a result of their energy efficiency and greater decentralization, PoS designs have seen tremendous growth. It's estimated that PoS-based chains would account for 44 percent of Layer 1 market capitalization if Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2)'s "merge" to PoS were completed, which many expect to happen during 2022. By shifting away from PoW-dominated networks, new business models like staking-as-a-service are emerging. According to JP Morgan staking currently, generates $9 billion worth of revenue annually and is expected to grow into a $40 billion industry by 2025.

Digital Assets Investment Opportunities

The digital asset investment landscape is vast and full of opportunities. There are currently several ways of investing in the web3 space:

• Coins tend to be native to a blockchain and are used to trade currency and store value. It’s a medium of exchange and transactions are handled on the blockchain. For example, Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) are coins.

• Tokens often operate on other blockchains for example Ethereum. They can represent many different things (see the type of different tokens below) and represents a digital asset. Tokens can be held for value, traded, and staked. Examples are Maker (MKR) and Komodo (KMD). Private tokens are only accessible through OTC exchanges and are riskier assets but can generate great rewards.

• Type of tokens:

  • Exchange tokens – grant unit or means of payment for goods or services

  • Utility tokens – grant access to goods and services

  • Security tokens – grant an interest or right in a business

  • Stablecoins – grant value pegged to an underlying asset (e.g., US dollars, gold, and oil)

• Startups investing for equity. Some people would argue that you’d see a much faster return if investing in a web3 company compared to a traditional B2B SaaS startup as the market is moving at a rapid pace in the web3 space. There is also the possibility of investing as an LP into web3 funds.

• Trading as the name implies crypto traders make money by speculating on cryptocurrency/tokens price movements via a CFD trading account, or by buying and selling the underlying coins via an exchange.

• Staking, you can stake a portion of your cryptocurrency holdings and earn a percentage-rate reward over time for cryptocurrency using PoS. Yield varies greatly between protocols and platforms you stake from.

• Mining has become highly competitive with higher barriers to entry but you can still make a profit out of mining crypto.

• NFTs some investors utilize NFTs like stocks and profit by buying and selling them. You can also rent out your NFTs to make money. However, NFTs in their current forms are highly speculative and volatile.

• Airdrops by investing and engaging in web3 projects you can get free distributions of crypto. Airdrops could also be seen as a marketing ploy for the web3 space. Although most “airdrops” don’t make you a millionaire there are stories of people who have successfully been airdropped crypto and then exchanged into fiat making a lot of money.

Flex is a slang term meaning “to show off,” whether it be your physique, your belongings, or some other thing you consider superior to those of others.

Flexing is not something new. Humans have flexed since the beginning of time —120,000 years ago cave(wo)men wore jewelry to show their social status. Studies have shown that disclosing information about the self is intrinsically rewarding and the activated brain area when flexing is the same as when we are having sex. In other words, flexing is part of being human.

The world wide web has taken the ability to flex to a whole new level. We can now show off in front of literally billions of people a far cry from the ≈100 people in total our ancestors meet in their lifetime. Basically flexing sucked back in the days.

Each century has given us a greater ability to show off in front of more people. Innovations around transportation greatly influenced the number of people we encountered, but the advent of information technology expedited the number of eyeballs we can flex in front of exponentially.

• Web 0 - (pre-1989) Flexing was difficult and the average Joe(anne) was limited to the people he/she physically encountered. For example, your Rolex watch would only really be seen by friends, family, work colleagues, and people that you'd physically meet. 

• Web 1 - (1989-2004) marks the birth of platforms like MSN and early forms of blogging. MSN mostly meant connecting with people you already knew and potentially some 2nd connections. It allowed for mini flexing like posting a cool status or changing your profile picture (wearing a Rolex) but you didn’t have exposure to millions of people.

• Web 2 - (2005-present-ish) Suddenly we can show off by posting photos of ourselves wearing a Rolex in front of millions of people through web2 giants like Instagram. But there are a few problems here; your flexing is technically owned by the web2 social platform, you are locked into these web2 platforms, and you can’t prove your ownership of your flexing.

• Web 3 - (2022- ) Hello, maxi flexing. In web3 your flex is tri-fold. First of all, you can display your NFT on various social platforms. You can prove your ownership and scarcity on the blockchain (so no fake Rolex) and lastly, people can look up how much you paid for your NFT without you having to shout to the world how wealthy you are.

It’s 2022, and it has never been a greater time to show off with flexing continuing to evolve through a blockchain NFT powered experience. Chose your preferred way of flexing and get to it 💪