How professional credentials unlock on chain talent markets
Metaverse workers and internet native organisations will programmatically coordinate resources - professional credentials are the foundation.
Blockchains allow us to store verified events over time. Instead of relying on claims made by individuals or groups that can be corrupted, humanity now has access to a trust anchor. This trust anchor empowers us to create not only monetary and financial systems but also internet native organisations and talent markets at global scale.
Some of the key components we'd need to have in place in order for these new types of organisations to thrive are
(1) a pseudonymous social graph
(2) professional credentials
(3) internet native organisations (DAOs)
(4) programmatic relationships between 1-3 (rights management, governance, workflows)
(5) user experience (interfaces, collaboration tools, talent marketplaces)
These components are not supposed to be conclusive. What is important to realise is that they are inter-dependent and partially conditional for one another. Without a pseudonymous social graph we couldn't issue user owned credentials. Without user owned professional credentials we can't efficiently manage internet native orgs. Points 1-3 are the foundation for the establishment of programmatic relationships between all of them as well as a broader set of applications sitting at the top layer of the stack.
Which role do professional credentials play in a crypto enabled future of work?
We can think of professional on chain credentials as time stamped certificates of specific actions or contributions. Their application will span every aspect of our professional lives.
Gamified on chain universities enabled by smart contracts which are pointing to a specific set of exercises and issue professional credentials or payments as a reward can be easily envisioned. Think a gamified codecademy issuing on chain credentials as a reward instead of easy to fake pdf certificates.
With more verified and contextualised data available on chain a logical next step would be the creation of on chain resumes. A LinkedIn type of social network where users control their data assets and can reveal themselves to the world gradually and where they can own their social graph.
From there we could think about new forms of composable talent marketplaces. Recruiting could become vastly more automatised. Auctions could be set up to finance and execute new projects issuing professional credentials and payments as rewards.
Organisational (DAO) governance and efficiency can be drastically improved. Verified credentials could streamline processes around specific roles and accountabilities (membership tiers) within an organisation - think tiered memberships and access control to specific content, groups or multi sigs for treasuries. Soulbound tokens or irrevocable NFTs will serve as catalysts for much more sophisticated designs going forward. The design space for programmatic workflows is vast and barely explored. Finally, retirement and insurance products could be built with higher accuracy and efficiency based on such a trove of data.
Those developments are in their very infancy and it might take decades for them to crystallize.
Where do we start?
Introducing: GitPOAP, a professional network and contributions oracle for metaverse workers
We are happy to announce our investment into GitPOAP, a professional network and contributions oracle for metaverse workers. We've been co-leading their $4.3M Seed round alongside Libertus and with participation from Protocol Labs, Avalanche VC, and several knowledgeable angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan, Patricio Worthalter, Anthony Sassano, Superphiza and Mariano Conti amonst others.
Their first product is an oracle for code contributions on Github as developers are natural early adopters within the category. Developers can now have contribution to Web 2.0 and web3 software projects, and organizations be represented by issued blockchain-based badges for meaningful contributions on GitHub. GitPOAP is issuing these badges as POAPs - NFTs that represent the action or contribution supplied.
Developer contributions to 617 repositories at the center of the Ethereum ecosystem including the Ethereum protocol are being memorialized by GitPOAP. Contributions to developer infrastructure and tooling (e.g., Solidity, OpenZeppelin, HardHat, web3,js, ethers.js, web3.py), and many other foundational projects (e.g., Yearn, Ledger, Gitcoin, Gnosis Safe & Chain, Rotki) have been memorialized by GitPOAPs. Hackathon participants at the MIT Bitcoin Expo and the Staking Gathering hosted by EthStaker at Devconnect used GitPOAP to reward hackathon participants.
Going forward additional off-chain sources for verified credentials will be added, particularly for knowledge workers. Complementary software and tooling will be provided to equip maintainers with the ability to reward all contributions to their projects, no matter what they are or what form they take. Long term the goal is to increase adversary interoperability of talent market related software to break open data silos.
We are psyched to be part of the GitPOAP community. We would be a happy if you would become part of it as well! Check out their website, Twitter and join the discussion on Discord to participate in the community!