Blog:
Newconomics 2023 - Meet our Speakers: Stephen Allen
Are you curious about Web3 but too shy to ask? Then you’ll be delighted to know that Stephen Allen, Core Contributor at the CryptoOracle Collective, is joining us for a panel at Newsonomics in Lisbon. As a taster ahead of the event, Stephen shared with us his perspective and insight around Web3 tech and the future of work.
“Blockchain technologies are great, but we really need to work on them if we are to make them as accessible as possible and democratic as we would like them to be. At CyrptoOracle, I spend a lot of my time working with organisations and clients to help demystify and open up blockchain and crypto. I love my job, but if the UX was a bit better, I probably wouldn’t need to do a lot of it, and it would be a far more powerful technology for everyone to access the things they need.
A prime example is finance. We often take this for granted, but there’s a huge proportion of the global population that is unbanked or underbanked because of issues around costs and trust. If we really want to open up opportunities for them, we could be making a bigger effort to help them to use Web3. I am broadly optimistic though, otherwise I doubt I would be so involved in decentralised finance (DeFi).
DeFi can really help to change the way we work. It’s already opened up so many opportunities that mean we can be hired on merit and work from almost anywhere in the world. With the cost of living going up, the ideal of working from cheaper and more interesting places is very appealing and blockchain can help a lot of people to do that.
There are still some barriers, like the UX issue with some platforms, but it can also be said that those with more money can untether the idea of democratisation in blockchain organisations. Put plainly, if you can buy more shares, you can have more control - in this way it’s not so different to traditional organisations.
What excites me about blockchain is the transparency. While the power balance might come with more money, at least we will be able to see this clearly. This can be applied to so many scenarios from voting to climate policy, the more transparent organisations are, the more we can work out if we trust them and it offers us the ability to make more informed decisions."
Find out more about the new economics of Web3 and how it can change the way we work together at the Newconomics event in Lisbon. Full details and registration can be found on the website.
