INTRODUCTION

My first encounter with the gig economy was in the COVID-19 year of 2020. I'd just started my career as a freelance writer and was exploring expansion options when a colleague recommended Fiverr, one of the world's biggest multinational online marketplaces. There I learned the business of gig work and honed my work ethic and quality. That year was the year crypto trends like CBDCs, cashless payment, DeFi adoption, and Bitcoin's third halving had people talking and speculating from the comfort of their homes. It was only a matter of time before cryptocurrency and Blockchain as a whole, caught my attention.

In my research, I discovered that millions of Africans were providing tech and non-tech services on demand in blockchain spaces without the intermediation of online marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork. Some of these services include UX design, technical writing, cryptography, Web 3 marketing, data analysis, community management, smart contract programming, and many others. While exploring the Blockchain space was a journey in risks, success, and brick walls for me, this article outlines a clear path to help newbies penetrate the gig economy of Blockchain with as few hurdles as possible.

What is the gig economy?

The gig economy is a system that pivots around the temporal use of freelance workers to provide services for individuals, industries, and in some cases, governments. Here, these independent contractors or freelancers are excluded from any benefits allocated to regular employees. However, they get to choose four important things:

How many hours they work
How much they are paid
Who do they work for
Where they work

Though most people discovered the power of a 'side hustle' in 2020, the gig economy did not begin in the COVID year. This begs the question of factors that led to the development of the gig economy. The most common factors are the quality of specific skills that gig workers provide, low employment costs, and the need for flexibility by professionals who prefer to have more control over their time and earnings. Today, this trend has spread across different parts of the world.

In Africa, the future of work is also changing as the mass exodus from the traditional work economy to the gig economy advances; a transition that presents a myriad of opportunities as well as challenges. This migration has its roots in the staggering unemployment rate of Africa, a continent rich in young talent and promise. According to Statista, Africa's unemployment rate in 2023 peaked at 7.11% and is projected to stay within this range at 7.03% in 2024.

The gig economy provides an invaluable alternative for over 112 million Africans deemed unemployable and unemployed. In a 2019 press release for their research on youth employment in Africa and digital commerce, Mastercard described gig workers as iWorkers, going further to predict a disruption in the future of work as young Africans interact with multinationals like Amazon and Alibaba.

Since its quick acceleration in 2020, the gig economy has evolved to the point where the world is not only paying more attention but entertaining the prospect of instituting policies to support and further accommodate the gig economy.

What should you consider before entering into gig work?

Three factors every freelance newbie must take into consideration before launching a career in the gig economy are the potential for job insecurity, the absence of legal protection, and employee benefits. What are the implications of these factors for the gig worker? To begin with, unless a freelancer has developed solid systems that ensure a steady flow of gigs, the challenge of job insecurity is commonplace due to how unpredictable the economy of gig work is.

While flexibility and autonomy are great advantages for a freelancer, working independently also means the average gig worker will no longer enjoy the benefits of traditional work environments like paid leave, retirement plans, and insurance. In addition, freelancers don’t get to enjoy the legal protection accorded to employees. It’s the biggest disadvantage for gig workers who are thus vulnerable to discriminatory or exploitative clients.

Freelancers can run a successful one-man enterprise if they can surmount these odds by creating safety nets that protect them to a great degree. Some of these measures include detailed contract arrangements, protection insurance, signing up with organizations that protect the rights of freelancers, and so on. Now, to the focal point of this article.

Breaking Into The Gig Economy of Blockchain As a Beginner

The first foundation this article is going to establish is that every freelance platform or opportunity has certain onboarding criteria to meet. And this also applies to gig work in the blockchain industry. There are requirements to meet and generally things to know about the industry. While blockchain technology can be understood by simplifying concepts, it's not the same as getting on board TaskRabbit or Upwork.

So, what's the best course for success as a freelancer in blockchain?

LEARN THE TECHNOLOGY

What is known and explored today as blockchain technology is a distributed ledger for fostering trust, keeping records of transactions, and monitoring assets. The immutable nature of blockchain means it cannot be easily hacked or manipulated. However, there’s more to blockchain than just being a shared ledger. It’s a technology that has developed multiple facets and is still doing so as it evolves. Some core concepts that makeup blockchain technology are smart contracts, consensus algorithms, distributed ledgers, encryption, and decentralization.

Other important concepts to understand in depth are those in Web3, the world’s current internet age as at writing this article. Why should a newbie understand Web 3? This is because the majority of its concepts are built on or powered by blockchain technology. To launch a successful career in blockchain as a gig worker, freelancers must have a clear knowledge of not only blockchain technology but related innovations as well. This ranges from decentralized finance to NFTs, Metaverse, and so on.

One of the best places to start is NODO Feed, the official homepage for NODO Africa, a Pan African Tech community for insightful news and educative content on Web 2 and Web 3 technology. From top influencers and their team of carefully curated experts, the average beginner in the gig economy of blockchain can access simplified information on blockchain, cryptocurrency, Web 3, the African tech landscape, and its communities. Founded by EMURGO in Q1 of 2023, NODO is every beginner’s gold mine when it comes to learning.

However, for gig work in blockchain, it's not enough to learn concepts and theories. Beginners also need to utilize blockchain tech to gain a practical understanding of how they work. The average gig opportunity pays in cryptocurrencies like ETH, USDT, BTC, SOL, and so on.

Tokens are sent into wallets after which it’s up to wallet owners to swap or convert to fiat before they can receive remunerations into their traditional bank accounts. This means gig workers in the industry must learn how to use crypto wallets as well as other tools in the blockchain space. More activities to be familiar with in blockchain spaces are staking, minting, lending, farming, and buying.

BUILD A PORTFOLIO

Within and outside the sphere of blockchain, the power of portfolios can never be overemphasized. Portfolios help freelancers keep track of their growth and achievements, thereby providing adequate motivation to do more and do better. This is what establishes distinction for the average freelancer among peers. Here, they get to demonstrate skill and experience, making it easier to foster trust with interested clients. There is more than one way to do this. The digital age of 2023 means freelancers have a plethora of options from social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to Medium, Github, and Behance.

One quick tip for freelance writers and creators in blockchain to note here is that the NODO home feed is a great place to start curating their portfolio. As part of their incentives for blockchain communities, NODO Africa provides a rich, vast platform for Web 3 professionals, creatives, and marketers to showcase valuable content for a vibrant audience that cuts across all corners of Africa. It’s every writer’s dream and an excellent place to start a career in the gig economy of blockchain.

JOIN A COMMUNITY

Many freelancers have success stories and achievements to share regardless of their niche. However, one thing most freelancers are not given proper orientation about is the loneliness and isolation that comes with a single-man career like gig work. This is often followed by doubts about one's career path and can either be amplified during the first several months of inconsistent job flow or at different points in a beginner's career. This is why communities are an essential part of the gig worker’s journey, especially in the blockchain industry, which is often a new landscape for beginners.

Joining a community opens up freelancers to massive learning and growth opportunities and provides a solid support system as they explore and expand. It gets easier to overcome isolation blues with a network of people at all levels of expertise to connect with. By participating in communities beginners enjoy access to hacks, tips, resources, and road maps like this article to help them emerge from challenges unscathed.

Besides freebies, many communities are also known to offer scholarship and mentorship opportunities to members to further equip them and accelerate their growth. For beginners trying to penetrate the gig economy of blockchain, communities are the ultimate treasure trove. All anyone needs to do is simply to participate and contribute where necessary.

CREATE DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS

As a gig worker whose primary landscape is the online space, digital footprints are one of the ways to showcase your services and any other specifics potential clients may want to know about you. And social media platforms are the way to go. The uniqueness of gig work is its quality of breaking geographical boundaries to connect buyers and sellers through the Internet.

Unless a social media option is explored for personal use, every freelancer should approach social media profiles as digital exhibits that show potential clients what services an individual provides and establish them as an authority or a credible professional to work with. This is the first encounter clients have with freelancers before they visit bio links to scan an individual’s portfolio.

A blockchain freelancer’s digital space should be sufficiently optimized and should curate content pivoting around the industry for better visibility and positioning. Content can include insights, news, opinion posts, tips, and so on. It’s a simple statement that creates a huge impression and will increase one's chances of being referred.

EXPLORE MENTORSHIP

The foundation of mentorship is the exchange of knowledge from one experienced party to the other. A mentor helps to provide useful tips or solutions on challenges as they come, some of which could include lack of confidence, impostor syndrome, career scaling, pricing, handling difficult clients, and many others. Essentially they are there to provide clarity wherever it’s needed in a beginner’s career.

Generally, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to mentorship and how it is carried out. It can be conducted formally in which the relationship is structured in terms of time, frequency, meeting platforms, and so on. Or informally with no inflexible routines to adhere to. Freelancers need to understand what they want to achieve, where they need improvement the most, and why they need a mentor else the expected outcome is defeated. Setting these priorities can now introduce the question of how much time can be invested in receiving a mentor’steachinge and the individual’s ability to accept constructive criticism.

END NOTES

The gig economy, an evolving system driven by freelance workers, revolutionizes work dynamics, allowing control over hours, pay, clients, and work location. Its emergence predates 2020, arising from specialized skills, low costs, and the need for flexibility. However, navigating this landscape demands considerations: job instability, lack of benefits, and legal vulnerability. To thrive, freelancers must secure their careers with contracts, insurance, and advocacy groups.

Venturing into blockchain's gig economy requires a broad understanding of its complexities. This means mastery of blockchain basics, Web3, and crypto operations is vital. On the bright side, platforms like NODO Feed offer beginner-friendly blockchain insights to help freelancers interested in blockchain learn and grow when they build their portfolios with NODO. A portfolio showcasing skills and expertise is invaluable. That is why NODO Feed doubles as a platform to exhibit blockchain talents.

To further thrive, becoming part of communities provides all the networking, knowledge, and support essential in the solitary career of gig work—shared knowledge. Communities can now be showcased through a freelancer's digital footprints on social media. This authenticates expertise, provides visibility, and helps them curate their experience as they go. The last road to ensure freelancers are not isolated or stranded in their journey is exploring mentorship, bolsters confidence and skill development, shaping a successful career into the blockchain gig economy.