An Udemy study revealed that 80% of people would feel more engaged in their work if they had the ability to learn new skills, and yet only 38% of the workforce was up-skilled in 2020. This disconnect comes, in part, from the investment of time and money that learning requires. Web3 has an answer to that as well: the learn-to-earn model.

I’m fascinated by the way that people are incentivized to learn Web3 technologies by earning tokens,” Smith shared. “For example, exchanges like Coinbase use token grants to both onboard new users and teach existing users about new features. Projects like Solana and Braintrust raised hundreds of millions of dollars to offer grants, investments and tokens to innovators who learn how to build new projects within their ecosystems. In essence, these investments in their communities are a down payment on future growth and adoption of their networks.”

Phelps explained the impact that this learn-to-earn model can have. “Traditional EdTech companies have faced three major challenges: scaling what's usually done best in one-on-one or small group settings, retaining students who quickly graduate on to new opportunities, and attracting users organically when the end-user is not the client. Learn-to-earn doesn't just have the potential to solve all these issues by creating incentives for students to teach each other while drawing in new users. It also expands educational opportunities to anyone around the world. Where the opportunity cost of not working in order to take classes would have been prohibitive for many, learn-to-earn lets them prioritize learning not only as an economic opportunity in and of itself, but one that can build far more economic opportunity longterm.