Back in my employee days, one of my favorite morning shows to listen to on the morning commute was about urban planning. It discussed how as cities grow, they need to develop hubs with their own schools, business centers, hospitals, housing and roads to connect them.
Of course, this makes total sense. What point is there in having to drive two hours to work in the next county only to have to drive two hours back after a grueling work day?
This was before web3, or at least before I found out about web3.
What are some of the benefits I've gained from embarking on a web3 jounrney? Let's take a look.
Micropayments
Remote work doesn't require web3. With the help of the internet and a bit of looking around, anybody with a given skill could teach languages, give music lessons, provide legal or professional consulting to just about anybody in the world. There are even websites like Fiverr and Upwork where you can create a profile to pick up remote gigs from a sort of online gig marketplace.
The site helps you promote your work and takes a cut for every gig landed. The thing is, on top of taking a significant percentage from your pay, you need to wait for your balance to reach a certain threshold in order to cover service fees. You don't want to withdraw $10 and pay $30 in fees. Not only that, if you're an international freelancer, you will then need to pay a large fee to your bank in order to use the SWIFT network (about $40 per transaction). With web 3, there are several blockchains that have very low fees to use, thus allowing you to do micro jobs and receive micro-payments in return.
During live stream of the CTT podcast, for example, hosts Matt and Dan gave out large upvotes to designers that submitted thumbnail designs for that particular episode. If you have the particular skill of graphic design, you can also create thumbnails, covers, edit images or create illustrations for any client who is familiar with cryptocurrency and is willing to pay you with it.
How about sharing knowledge?
If you join a particular X Spaces that is accompanied by an INLEO threadcast, you can earn cryptocurrency by providing insightful comments, answering questions, giving valuable feedback, etc.
With web3, micro-payments for providing value in the form of work or knowledge is a reality.
Specialized skills
If you have a specialized skill like programming, you're golden. Instead of having to prepare for your morning commute with a jug of coffee, a handfull of podcasts and your favorite Taylor Swift playlist, you get to offer your services to an endless list of companies large and small, who require someone that knows Javascript.
But let's go further.
Project managers, copywriters, video editors, sound engineers, virtual assistants... the list goes on and on. These are all skills that are needed by both hybrid and fully remote companies and projects. Many of which might be looking for you and are probably not within driving distance.
The power of "AND"
And finally, why not both? If you have a highly sought after skill and you have some free time, why not spend your day doing your remote day job and your free time doing micro-work in exchange for micro-payments? Make tutorials, review crypto projects, invest in some web3 projects, join airdrops, the list of opportunities is endless and it's all available to you thanks to the magic of web3.
Oh and if you think you missed the opportunity, you didn't. We are still incredibly early.
Take advantage.
Why anybody would choose to sit it a car for two hours to work in an office is beyond me. I'm guessing it's because these folks are not yet aware that web3 exists.
Once they figure it out, and they're willing to step outside their comfort zone, their lives could do a 180 degree turn :)
