Best known as the host of cryptocurrencies, experts and economists say that blockchain technology can be the future of working life
Lynsey Jackson was looking for a change when she quit her corporate finance job to consider career opportunities, before deciding on a direction that would shock many.
She sees her future in blockchain technology, and begins with a diploma in applied blockchain from TAFE Queensland.
Best known as the platform that hosts cryptocurrencies, the blockchain is the foundation of “Web3”, the bold new internet held together by distributed databases, each of which confirms the same information.
Blockchain is a peer-to-peer security network that allows users to become part of the system.
In relation to cryptocurrencies, the system validates coin ownership and transactions, as well as working to create new coins.
“Most people when I mention that I’m turning my career into a blockchain really do not know what I’m talking about and what the possibilities are … for the most part, people in my world are pretty ignorant,” Jackson said. so.
“It can improve things like tracking and traceability and reduce fraud … We can use that kind of technology to make the world a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable place for everyone.”
What does she want to do in the industry?
“That’s the million-dollar question,” she said. – That is why I have signed up for the diploma.
Jackson first learned about blockchain as most people do: cryptocurrency.
According to CHOICE, one in nine Australians has invested in a cryptocurrency over the past 12 months and a further 11 per cent are interested in investing.
But Ms Jackson, who “holds” investments in some of the big coins, said that was not what drew her to study the technology.
“What’s actually happening in the blockchain area is far beyond just what we know about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and an opportunity to get rich quick,” she said.
In search of stability
According to economist and futurist Steve Sammartino, a better public understanding of the difference between cryptocurrencies and the blockchain is fundamental to the latter’s future success, or failure.
“The fact that they are gathered in the same category is a bit problematic,” he said.
“Cryptocurrencies are a one-off case for the blockchain … blockchain has an incredible upside and potential to reshape the entire economy.”
Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile and there are currently around 10,000 on the market.
Sammartino said some cryptocurrency will be needed if the blockchain is to be used for large financial transactions, but the current spread and instability are undermining any value as a viable replacement for fiat money.
He believes that there is a role for the authorities in what has until now been a largely unregulated space.
“Regulation frames what we believe as a community and society, that is the first part. The second part is education in schools,” he said.
“The challenge is that space is changing so fast that regular regulation and education cannot keep up because there is always the next thing or the next iteration of a rapidly evolving technology.
“It gives hucksters five minutes to get ahead and say, ‘OK, boomer, you do not understand.’
“Just a way to store data”
Danielle Marie tries to get in front of the hucksters.
She teaches the applied blockchain diploma at TAFE Queensland.
Marie said that many of her students sign up for the course in the hope of learning more about investing in cryptocurrencies, but go with more specific goals.
“Crypto is the gateway to blockchain,” she said.
She said most of her students will be either project managers and planners or business analysts, positions added to the list of skilled migrants in 2019, indicating a need for more people with blockchain knowledge and training in Australia.
These jobs fall into the category of information and communication technology (ICT), and although it is unclear which part of the jobs offered in this sector will be blockchain-related, estimates estimate another 20,000 jobs in Australia for ICT managers and analysts by 2026.
There is already a shortage of ICT leaders nationally, with an expected strong future demand.
Marie agrees with Sammartino that blockchain is misunderstood when viewed only through the cryptocurrency lens.
“At the end of the day, there’s just one way to store data,” she said.
“Most of the students who study these courses will end up going down either in project management, business analyst, consultant, educator or some kind of research analyst.”
Marie said that better access to the industry is the key to a broader understanding of the technology.
“We need cooperation between governments, organizations and communities to work together to provide education to the people.”
Not everyone works “in the depths of technology”
Jock McQueenie from QUT School of design has experience working with blockchain.
In 2019, he worked with Beefledger, a project that uses blockchain technology in an effort to eliminate fraud from the beef industry, and track the product from Australian pastures to China’s plates.
“They developed data from one end of the supply chain to the other, you know, Fitbits on cows, and measured the metabolism all the way to the packaging and the consumer experience,” said Dr McQueenie.
He described his role as an intermediary at both ends, and gave life to the story the customer was told, convincing the farmers that it was a good idea.
Dr. McQueenie is now working on a similar project that tracks fair coffee from source to customer in the Pacific.
He said there are blockchain-affiliated jobs that do not require deep knowledge of the technology, just a gratitude for it.
“I think the potential for jobs related to it is not necessarily in the depth of the technology, but in linking it to a human outcome,” he said.
“What I do is translate what [the technology does] to a wider audience.
“My role is to merge dots, instead of being an expert in technology.”
A slow but inevitable revolution?
QUT cryptography PhD candidate Thomas Miller’s work comes from the depths of technology.
Miller said that courses like Ms Jackson are great “introductory courses”, but he would also like to see better education and regulation around blockchain and internet security in general.
“Just the way you go and get a security card on one [work] website, it should be something you do when managing a blockchain account, “he said.
He believes blockchain will restructure the workforce, with smaller company structures and more security for workers – a world where completed jobs can be easily tracked and paid for.
“I believe the paradigm shift in the way we ourselves think [work] is going to be big, “he said.
“We are so used to interacting with the company structure, so the company implements business processes – it is the business processes that are valuable to society.”
Mr Miller said that it does not matter the task, whether it is a physical job, just like planting a tree or an online one, such as website design or accounting, everything that has value will be traceable and the transfer will be easy.
“The idea of a corporate shell will slowly disappear … it will only be the business processes and the people who commit to these will be paid for each instance of the business process they complete,” he said.
“I think it’s just a slow revolution, or slow change, societal change.
“It’s just literally inevitable, because it’s a better solution to do it this way.”
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