The Future of Work and Play in Web3

One of the key promises of web3 is that it will be much easier for participants in web3 to make money off their efforts versus web 2.0. This means content creators can (in theory) more easily make money off their content, and active participants in building a web3 platform can share in the profits that would otherwise accrue mostly to the platform itself, as we saw with web 2.0 platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Another area of web3 that promises compensation for participants is the emerging Play to Earn game space. The idea is simple; as you play the game, you are earning tokens that can later be redeemed for money, if you so desire.

A recent example of a Play to Earn game is the Artieverse, which is due to launch its first game later this year. In short, the game lets you play against other players, and you can improve the skills of your player by either purchasing items or by playing the game. As you win new items for your player, these new items give the player new skills and make it easier for them to win matches.

Eventually, you can acquire all the skills available for your player. When this happens, your player is then converted into an NFT. You can then keep your NFT, or sell it on an NFT marketplace like OpenSea. As you can see the current floor price (lowest selling price) for Artieverse NFTs is around $300. A recent Twitter Spaces by the company explains the process in greater detail:

https://twitter.com/theartieverse/status/1527364793648066560

It will be interesting to see how this evolves, but I am fascinated at the potential of finding ways to use web3 technologies to compensate people for engaging in their hobbies and interests. It’s not just Play to Earn games, think about genealogy. Millions of people just in the US research their own family history and those of others. What if they were all part of a Genealogy DAO that compensated them for their research? They could have a platform to share their research and discoveries with others (helping them flesh out the branches of their own family trees), but also they are compensated for their time in the form of tokens which they could either sell for money, or hold and use as governance over the platform itself.

The idea is to take activities that people are already engaging in for free, and give them a way to keep engaging in those same activities, but be paid for it. A hobby could quickly develop into a side income, and as you started making money from your hobby, that could give you the resources to expand it. Maybe making a few hundred dollars from your genealogy research could fund a few trips to cemeteries in your region for more research, or something similar.

In short, it’s about finding a way to let people spend more time engaging in the activities that they are truly passionate about. For all of mankind, our hobbies and passion projects have typically been our distraction from the boring drudgery of daily work and life. what if we could reach a point where our hobbies and passion projects BECOME our life’s work?

Web3 promises to bring us closer to that reality. Let’s see what happens.