Read part one of Seamless Work below:

Seamless Work

Exploring how DAOs could enable a shock-resistant model for work.

Zachary HornZachary Horn

I mentioned the idea of Seamless Work (SW) to a friend, and his reaction is how I imagine many will react at first.

"I don't think people want to have more than one job. People want to work for one company, and that's it."

He's right. People probably don't want to have more than one job. But that's a different concept from Seamless Work's base unit. In SW, the base unit is a skill. These skills are brought to fruition via a network of decentralized organizations. Where, when, and how you choose to bring that skill to use is entirely up to you—as opposed to a manager in a corporate structure.

Let's say your skill is that you can write well. In the fluid work model, your first step is getting proof of that skill. Consider this a Proof of Skill. Once you have verifiable proof of your skill, you need to find an organization with an open task that lists that skill as a prerequisite.

(This could be an entirely separate post, but the Proof of Skill for writing could be something like—having an article published somewhere, having a portfolio of written pieces, etc. The idea is to demonstrate the skill instead of proving knowledge with testing—which is the current system.)

A DAO or other organization defines a list of tasks that need to be completed and attaches a payout for each task. This system is similar to the bounty system. The DAO tasks a member with matching skilled participants with tasks they have the prerequisites to complete. This person would also verify the Proof of Skill for each participant.

Once the participant completes the task, they collect their reward.

Crucially—the track record for each participant accrues independently of any organization. This system is somewhat similar to a resume. The difference is that this track record is verifiable via collected rewards and can be verified automatically. This automatic verification makes these track records difficult to falsify and mitigates bias and inefficiency in the tasking (read: hiring) process.