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Crypto: Life After Automation

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I was reading the post of a prominent Hive user who quit his job a few days ago and remarked about being able to take so many off days prior to quitting largely due to increased automation of processes at his then job.

Even before crypto was a thing, we have long feared the impact of automation and the impact it will have on jobs. There is no doubt that some job roles/functions will be rendered obsolete by automated services, but the major fear has been to what extent such a revolution will spread. If companies for instance had to downsize their workforce by say 80 percent due to automation, it would lead to unemployment numbers like never before.

However, increased automation is also paving way for an increase in productivity, efficiency and greater value addition. Society is largely getting better due to automation. For instance we are generally richer on the average, and we have seeing some remarkable breakthroughs in fields such as healthcare due to automating some services.

What people fear about automation though goes beyond unemployment numbers. Even if we were all captured over some social safety net that provides similar benefits to being employed, chances are that many people will rather seek out a job. Whether as an employee or an entrepreneur, being employed provides more than just a steady paycheck particularly for those doing things they actually enjoy.

If one considers it, Society largely labels us based on what we do, What we do is a big part of our identity and if we all become 'recreational citizens' with no job at hand, I feel a lot of us are going to lose that identity. Being jobless can quickly lead to boredom and stultification.

Crypto and Automation

The introduction of blockchain technology has certainly made the automation discourse a lot more interesting. In hindsight, this technology looks set to further advance and speed up the automation process. However, Web 3.0 does provide some cliffhangers which would be worth considering.

In this decentralized space, jobs are going to be provided from a range of value offerings, some which were previously not monetizable. For instance, Hive with active blogging has 'employed' more people than most renowned blogging websites and while a lot of 'bloggers' here are actually terrible at it (myself included), it just goes to show how new jobs can be created from a new decentralized system that puts consumers in charge.

Even if automation does take over, with web 3.0 we probably will make the switch to monetizing hobbies or activities previously impossible/difficult to sell as full time jobs or as our new professional identities. It will be interesting to see just how many new opportunities the blockchain can create and how we are set to take full advantage of it.

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