DAOs: The Future of Employment and the Death of the CV

By Moshe Lieberman, CEO and founder of Share

Since the conception of the crypto era the ideology of democratization and globalization has been on the tip of many taste buds around the world. Due to the nature of DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and their ability to build worldwide companies and communities, it is arguably no wonder that their popularity has been growing since their beginnings back in 2016. This decentralized and autonomous nature also impacts the way members find work, and this increasingly admired method of employment could have major effects on the future concept of work opportunities, politics and procedures.

Where Did DAOs Come From and Why Are They Significant?

The original DAO was initially created as an investor-directed venture capital firm by Ethereum protocol engineer, Christophe Jentzsch. On April 30, 2016, he released code as open source pertaining to an ETH-based, collectivized investment organization which he named “The DAO”. Simultaneously DAO tokens were sold in exchange for ETH (ether). 

Now, there are thousands of DAOs of varying size, function, and values, and with more relations and options to engage with authorities, many have named 2023 “The Year of the DAO” – the year they have the option to become ‘legitimized’.

DAOs are blockchain-based entities which work as a cooperative, collectively owned by its members. Participants work and earn tokens, which can be turned into “real” cash while giving members the opportunity to vote on the DAOs politics and in turn, have a true say in the management and direction of the organization. Work and information is shared across open source forums. Herein lies the interesting potential evolution of global employment.

Trend Changes in Recruitment

The advancements in communications technologies and global networking over the past decade have made remote working significantly more feasible and have in turn opened the minds of many companies to the idea of a globalized vision of the future. Arguably this became even more significant after the Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed our working predilections, with distance coworking, along with employers trust in their employees, becoming a necessity rather than a preference. 

This is coupled with a generational shift in attitudes towards work. Where so-called baby boomers would stay at one specific job for a lifetime and Gen-Xers desired upward mobility and began to jump from job to job, Millennials and Gen-Z are notably demanding agency and ownership of their own employment. 

Even before the pandemic, short term contracting, at-home working and freelance appointments had become more and more favorable from white collar professionals. Nearly half (47%) of all workers worldwide were freelancers - 1.56 billion people – and 70% of them were aged 35 and under, according to statistics released by the World Bank.

Not only have our attitudes to working changed, but the methods by which employees find work, and indeed companies find workers, is becoming more and more digital. Statistics released by Undercover Recruiters show that mobile devices play a critical role for 89% of job seekers when thinking about their job-hunting process, and 49% search on these devices daily. Furthermore, the company predicts AI playing a major role in recruitment processes in the near future. 

DAOs as the Solution

All of these elements fall neatly into the advantages of working with DAOs. Professionals can work with multiple organizations on a number of projects and platforms according to their specific experience and skill levels. Work is advertised digitally and available remotely with an online onboarding process. That agency the younger generations demand, given back to employees.

They can be as involved with the company as they wish, garnering certain benefits as they go. The more work they do for a specific DAO, the more tokens they earn. The more tokens they earn, the more they move up the company organically with more voting power on how it is managed. Companies are fully transparent with all of their policies, procedures, visions and code presented using open source facilitation – as is the experience and skill of the workers themselves. 

Resumes Not Required

Traditionally, companies’ recruitment processes are handled through interviews, with HR professionals and management checking through resumes to find the right candidate. The open source nature of DAOs means that all the experience and output created by the professionals is laid out in full view, a true portfolio logged upon the blockchain. If recruiters and managers could see in front of them the actual work of candidates, would there be a need for a resume? Could this mean the death of the CV? 

On the other side of the fence, candidates can see, through open source transparency, details of the organization’s vision, mission and, ergo, reputation. Glassdoor’s Mission & Culture Survey from 2019 shows that before applying for positions, 79% of people consider company mission and purpose and in fact half of them place it above salary, in terms of priority. Culture is also an important factor, with 77% of adults giving it serious consideration before putting themselves forward as a candidate - millennials more than baby boomers and Gen-X. And this could be where DAOs could fall short.

The global nature of DAOs and the digital setting could be off putting for some. Work of course isn’t only about money. There is a social aspect and there are communal factors. However, global online communities are certainly in high regard going into 2023. 

People receive similar satisfaction through digital communication, and many DAOs have social gatherings for their members on- and offline. For example, Cabin strives to create a network city of people living and working together in different locations and makes a point of holding social events. Also FWB (Friends with Benefits), a consortium of creatives who hold a number of IRL events. 

A Digital Future

The future is digital, there is no doubt about it. For three decades every aspect of our lives, including recruitment, has been moving in this direction. Social media, Web3 and the internet as a whole have created an urgency for information and opportunity to be made with elements of transparency, security and accessibility. 

The time of analogue onboarding is on its way out and the digital employment market is coming. And DAOs hold the key to the castle of open, free, employment opportunities for everyone. The true democratization of the recruitment world 

Author Bio

Moshe Lieberman, CEO and founder of Share, is an expert in the field of crypto, technology, and startups. With a proven track record of success in the tech startup industry, he started Share, a DAO marketplace that lowers barriers and aids those planning to join the Web3 world.