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Work Is Being Rewritten—Are We Ready for It?

Work Is Being Rewritten—Are We Ready for It?

Rethinking jobs, purpose, and identity in the age of decentralized work.

Scott Kasten
May 08, 2025

Introduction

I am willing to bet that most (likely any) of us didn’t grow up dreaming of “working for a DAO” or being paid in tokens with animal logos. Maybe when we were kids payment in anaimal tokens was an attractive proposition, but none of us were connecting DAO to work.

But here we are—watching, and in some cases participating in, a massive rewiring of what it means to work. It’s exciting, promising, and a little bit weird.

The Why of Work Is Changing

Web3 work challenges all kinds of assumptions. The idea that you need a job title. That value comes from time spent, not impact delivered. That your manager’s approval is more important than your peers’. That your professional worth can be distilled into a PDF résumé.

In the Web3 world, those ideas start to melt. You might work under a pseudonym. Your reputation might be stored on-chain. Your “boss” might be a Discord poll. And the result of your labor might not be a salary—but a governance token, a reputation score, or a piece of digital ownership in something collective.

It's Not for Everyone—And That’s OK

Let’s not pretend it’s perfect. Web3 work is messy. It’s often underpaid, disorganized, and at times exclusionary. It is also frequently the opposite. For many, a traditional job still offers stability, predictability, and benefits that DAOs simply can’t match right now.

But for those who crave autonomy, fluid collaboration, and the chance to build something new from the ground up—it’s electric, for some of the others it is shocking.

As uncomfortable as some of these ideas might make you, several of the Web2 world’s norms need a rethink: The 9-to-5 grind. Endless gatekeeping. Cubicle conformity. The performative culture of Zoom calls and productivity theater.

Web3 work doesn’t have all the answers, but it’s at least asking the right questions.

From Job Titles to Roles. From Employers to Communities.

Maybe the biggest shift isn’t technological—it’s philosophical.

In Web3, work isn’t always about “having a job.” It’s about contributing to something you believe in. And that flips the script: Instead of molding yourself to fit a company, you find ecosystems that match your values and skills—and you plug in.

This new world invites us to define success differently. Not by promotions or perks, but by impact, autonomy, and alignment.

So, Are We Ready?

Here’s the thing: you don’t need to quit your job, burn your résumé, and join the first DAO you find. But you should be paying attention.

Because whether you work in tech, education, design, or finance, the ideas behind Web3 work—distributed teams, tokenized incentives, contributor-owned platforms—are seeping into the mainstream.

Case in point. One of my favorite weekend activities is enjoying chocolate chip pancakes my wife makes me each Saturaday morning and reading the weekend edition of the Financial Times. Last week, an article caught my eye about a Japanese machinery company that governs employees with what are essentially internal tokens called “Will”.

New hires are given a base amount of Will. Employees log on to the company app and are presented with a list of tasks that they can do. Each task has an amount of Will that you receive and employees are able to bid for certain tasks. The more unattractive but important tasks offer more Will than others. This system allows employees to choose what type of work they want to do or how they feel they can best contribute.

There is a flip side to this. If your work is poor quality or you cause disruption in the workplace you can be fined a certain amount of Will. Will is also an internal currency. Do you want a personal 30-minute meeting with the CEO? No problem, just drop 165,000 Will and its yours. At the end of the year your Will balance will determine how much of a bonus you are paid. There is more to this system than I can do justice to here, but it has been in place for over 14 years now and has greatly improved company performance.

Work is being rewritten. The only question is: will we be passive employees in this next chapter—or active contributors to it?

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