The Future Of Virtual Working Environments And Decentralized Identifiers (DID)

Jobs have existed for time immemorial, but they keep changing as human civilization adopts new technologies.

This century marked the debut of several technologies that have significantly impacted the nature of work.

For starters, the internet era forged a path for the existence of digital communities through social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram, to mention a few. 

With the world coming out of the pandemic, the paradigm shift to technology-driven ecosystems has accelerated as more stakeholders come to terms with the changing dynamics.

According to research by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17% of the existing occupations will reduce their workforce significantly within the next five years.

Most of the jobs that will be affected fall under industries that require a human workforce to sustain operations. 

That said, employees can only prepare for the futuristic work environment by keeping up with the trends. One of the sectors that is experiencing a surge in workforce demand is the FinTech industry.

The pandemic forced people globally to embrace digital ecosystems, giving rise to e-commerce solutions and digital financial services.

The latter has since expanded to be part of the growing crypto ecosystem through Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols. 

So, what does the future of work hold for today’s global citizens? While it may not be obvious to everyone, futuristic work environments will likely be run and managed through digital ecosystems. 

Virtual Working Environments Taking Over 

The pandemic may have had large negative effects on the world’s population, but one thing is for sure; it accelerated the shift to digital environments.

Last year, virtual meeting apps such as Zoom and House Party broke records as they onboarded millions of users from across the globe.

While their growth rate slowed down as normalcy resumed, more companies than ever before are working to integrate remote or hybrid working environments. 

Even better, the crypto ecosystem is creating opportunities to thrive online through the metaverse and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Today, you can replicate real-world activities on the metaverse and engage other participants while earning a passive income from participating.

Though a nascent ecosystem, NFTs and the metaverse have a huge potential of enabling virtual working environments of the future. 

As far as innovation goes, the NetVRk metaverse is one of the digital ecosystems that allows users to leverage their imagination to create virtual working environments.

This platform is designed with a combination of VR and NFT technology, featuring a virtual ecosystem where users can buy land parcels and develop according to their preferences.

Both individuals and corporations can create a VR-oriented working space within the NetVRk metaverse. 

Unlike Zoom where users depend on a third party to facilitate the services, metaverse working environments such as NetVRk give users the flexibility of control.

Additionally, most of the futuristic virtual ecosystems in crypto are offering incentives for early adopters. One can easily increase their sources of revenue while working their normal jobs.

NetVRk, for example, features a staking reward program to attract more users to secure the network. 

Decentralized Identifiers; The Digital IDs of the Future 

Given the prospects of shifting to virtual ecosystems, the big question is how individuals and corporations will be able to authenticate their digital identities.

As it stands, Web 2.0 platforms offer users the option of creating a profile (choosing a name and avatar).

However, big tech companies are taking advantage of personal data, an issue that has made internet users develop cold feet. 

Thanks to blockchain technology, the future of digital IDs is gradually being built on decentralized ecosystems such as Selfkey.

This DAO governed project introduces a way to allocate digital identities through Proof-of-Individuality (POI) and Proof-of-Participation (POP).

At the very core, Selfkey is a decentralized identity (DID) solution enabling users to authentically access digital ecosystems and the metaverse. 

The Selfkey DID solution goes an extra mile to feature ‘living avatars’, allowing users to leverage them as their digital identities.

Furthermore, the platform’s users can attach other personal credentials to their NFTs, leaving no doubt about a user’s authenticity.

Going by the adoption rate of virtual working environments, it is inevitable for stakeholders to adopt DID solutions that can be verified as per the on-chain data. 

Bottom Line 

As we usher in the next era of working environments, both employers and employees have little to no option but to adopt virtual ecosystems.

According to a report by global consulting firm McKinsey, 20-25% of the workers in advanced economies could shift to hybrid working environments where they work 3+ days remotely. 

“First, hybrid remote work could continue: 20 to 25 percent of workers in advanced economies and about 10 percent in emerging economies could work from home three to five days a week, mainly in the computer-based office work arena.” reads the report. 

Given this estimate, it is only logical for global stakeholders to prepare for the next phase of working environments. Blockchain and crypto ecosystems will play a fundamental role through the metaverse and decentralized digital identifiers.

With so much at stake, we can only hope that innovators and market participants will live up to the expectations.