Future of Work- Impact of Blockchain and Smart Contracts

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Scope of this article is limited to innovative /learning organizations that are responding to constantly changing world. Traditional hierarchical organizations like the military or church are out of scope.

Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) will come into existence. These will have the advantages communities have over hierarchical structures. Individual team members will be bound by smart contracts and there won’t be any need for a corporate entity to govern their relationships.

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The risk of failure of a project will be assumed by an individual stakeholder who will be rewarded as the owner of the outcome if it succeeds.

These DAOs will be short lived – their lives will be limited to the project for the purpose of which the team is put together. Once the project is over the team will be disbanded.

Team members will be bound by a smart contract to the DAO. These smart contracts will ensure that no central authority is required to enforce the terms of the contract.

There will be no managerial overhead required to supervise individual team members and to ensure that they are delivering the work that they are being paid for. Smart contracts will automatically enforce accountability and discipline.

Work itself will be more interesting with one individual playing multiple roles – a leader in one project could be an intern in another project.

With smaller teams engaged in number of small short lived DAOs executing innovative projects the job of hiring team members will become more frequent. One can’t spend 12 weeks (as in the traditional recruitment process )searching for and evaluating candidates for a project which might last for 20 weeks.

More automated ways of recruitment using AI and Machine Learning will help recruiters and DAOs to reduce the time to hire to a few days – not weeks. Teams will get formed by like minded individuals finding each other. Trust relationships will be more easily forged by smart contracts.

Jobs will be replaced by assignments. An individual would be engaged in multiple assignments simultaneously. Each assignment will be customized to suit the needs of the project. Working hours, place of work, compensation, skills needed etc. will depend on the project. Designations will be replaced by multiple roles.

Individuals will develop T shaped skills with depth in one area and interest and working knowledge of many other areas. In fact they will relish learning new skills by offering to work under a relatively younger team member. Reporting relationships will become more flexible- one can be reporting to a person who is a reportee on another project.

DAOs will pay individual team members in cryptocurrencies which will ensure that the economy in which the DAO is participates will thrive increasing the value of the cryptocurrency as compared to the fiat currency.

Monthly earning will depend on the value added and will reduce over the years if new skills are not acquired. There will be less politics as people will stop holding higher authority and getting paid higher merely because of their seniority. Authority and leadership will be short lived and based only on merit.

There will be a wider acceptance of the fact that intellectual property grows by sharing it openly , by maximizing its use and inclusion than by restricting its use and exclusion. Open source culture will gain ground. IP rights, patents and litigations will fade and become history.

Smart contracts will ensure that royalty, license fees and commissions will be automatically paid directly to the creator triggered by use of the digital asset. Intermediaries aggregating , distributing and collecting payments for digital assets will go out of business – the way music publishers like HMV and Nickelodeon went. Creative talent will be richly rewarded leading to an age of ultra modern renaissance.

Individuals will stop taking comfort in “getting hired” as the project to which they are assigned may not last more than a few weeks. Lifetime / Long Term employment with retention bonus etc. will become things of the past.

Smart contracts won’t need corporate law to ensure implementation. Cryptocurrencies would isolate these contracts from vagaries of fiat currency fluctuations. People working across national borders will be able to enter into contracts and get paid for their work without bothering about corporate laws of any particular nation. Geographical proximity would become less relevant. Teams will be formed based on mental proximity than physical proximity.

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Vinayak Joglekar (CTO, Synerzip & Director, Rezoomex)

Vinayak Joglekar is a technology & recruitment expert with around 40 yrs. of experience. He is a distinguished thought leader who has changed trends in recruitment and futuristic software development. He is acclaimed for recruiting and developing great talents in IT.

Vinayak believes in empowering IT recruiters with technical knowledge so that they can earn their due respect. Currently, he is the CTO of Synerzip and Director of Rezoomex.

 

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