The dawn of NFT’s accelerated a new form of community building that takes the idea of community building and elevates it as a model to grow mega-brands. This counter-culture has drawn massive interest across the globe forming a new generation of on-chain trailblazers that are no-longer interested in the traditional way we engage in work.

It’s no surprise that the remote work culture has embraced the NFT space as these web3 brands generally champion the gig / remote work economy being that one of the main focus of NFT’s is providing you with a digital identity that is non-fungible and anon. The future may very well consists of various avatars working together remotely.

Accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Work-From-Home (WFH) work culture has permeated across the entire globe where even in this post pandemic world, there is a big percentage of the workforce expecting a work life that involves either full remote or hybrid employment.

Despite this new trend showing the opposite of what most employers expected out of a remote work agreement; expectations were that productivity among employees would decline. Reports have shown that more than 50% of companies across the board are expecting their workforce to return to full time office work.

Studies have shown that those who work from home spend less time being unproductive. An average of 10 minutes less a day being unproductive contributing to a 47% more productivity.

A study by Stanford found that working from home increase productivity by 13%. This increase in performance was due to more calls per minute attributed to a quieter more convenient working environment and working more minutes per shift because of fewer breaks and sick days. In this same study workers also reported improved work satisfaction, and attrition rates were cut by 50%.

With a lot of people experiencing this new work life that encourages self development and self drive towards their work as well as a freedom to discover what makes them most productive from anywhere without the boundaries of an office space, we’ve seen a negative impact with companies that enforce back-to-work policies. Productivity has declined in the returning workforce as employees feel torn with the fact that they prefer the flexible option to WFH. Research has shown that more than half the workforce prefer a WFH or hybrid work environment and this is expected to grow with the booming gig economy.

Sites like Fiverr and Upwork has seen an exponential growth in users over the past few years, mainly driven by the pandemic and border restrictions. More people are embracing the gig economy with a growing chunk of the population fully working as a gig-worker/freelancer. However, these are web2 platforms that cater to the traditional company structures whereas web3 prioritises on-chain verifiability, anonymous

This leads us to the most important driver that will shift the balance and transform how the future of work / employment will play out, web3. That being said, we should start with what web3 is as most of the world is still trying to grasp what the meaning of the third iteration of the internet is and how it works.

The term Web3 was coined by Ethereum co-founder and Polkadot creator Gavin Wood. He used this term when describing a "decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain."

According to ethereum.org, Centralization has helped onboard billions of people to the World Wide Web and created the stable, robust infrastructure on which it lives. At the same time, a handful of centralized entities have a stronghold on large swathes of the World Wide Web, unilaterally deciding what should and should not be allowed.

Web3 is the answer to this dilemma. Instead of a Web monopolized by large technology companies, Web3 embraces decentralization and is being built, operated, and owned by its users. Web3 puts power in the hands of individuals rather than corporations. Thus, the birth of Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAO) and an alternative perspective on work.

A DAO is a collectively-owned, blockchain-governed organization working towards a shared mission.

But what does this mean? A DAO challenges the traditional concept of what a “company” or “organisation” operates, governs and divides profits. Instead of having corporate structures, a DAO is built and governed by the community that is invested in that DAO. A truly democratised organisation without hierarchy where everyone involved is incentivised to build and grow towards their goal.

Such an organisation is only possible with the advent of blockchain and smart contracts. Although there is no perfect DAO structure, this look at how the future of what companies may look like already introduces us to an alternative work life where interests align and autonomy is programmed. Given the structure of DAO’s, most work that will be done within a DAO will be ad-hoc/gigs and hiring will be done within the community. Build your community, with your community.

This shift in the zeitgeist may prove very appealing to the growing on-chain generation or as we like to term as Generation XYZ or Gen XYZ.

A shift like this will most likely accelerate the decentralisation of the workforce where gigs and ad-hoc tasks become a norm and individuals participating in multiple organisations instead of just working for one will be commonplace. Gone are the days where you need to pledge your allegiance to one company. Gone are the days where its an employer-employee work environment. Gone are the days where your worth is based on your title but based on the skills you bring to the table.

So, will DAO’s eventually become the standard of how our future organisations will operate or are we bound to a corporate hierarchical structure for the foreseeable future? The answer to this is really up to the builders and participants making their mark right now. We argue its only a matter of time before DAO’s or variations of a decentralised autonomous structure becomes the preferred organisation of choice.