At RabbitHole, we believe that, in the future, earning crypto by participating in protocols will be one of the most common jobs on the Internet. 

Over the last few years, gig economy businesses have struggled to empower their participants. While gig work becomes increasingly important, we’ve seen early signs that crypto can strengthen some of the foundational challenges the gig economy faces through a new ownership structure – tokens.

Play-to-earn games gave us a glimpse of what the future might hold, in which earning crypto by playing games or using applications can be more desirable for workers than, say, driving a taxi. While the first iteration of play-to-earn games couldn’t maintain their position and, more broadly, protocols as a whole weren’t entirely sustainable, it led to the realization that their core problem was rooted in token distributions.

Today, we are still in the speculation phase of crypto, where tokens are misallocated to airdrop hunters, have minimal proven utility to meet loose regulatory guidelines, and do not drive meaningful on-chain revenue for token holders.

Due to these limitations, protocols today are designed for set and forget, rather than continuous engagement. We believe that blockchain scaling and regulatory clarity will enable a new wave of protocols that look very much like a decentralized gig economy, with marketplaces that can handle millions of transactions per day, driving substantial revenue to token holders based on their contributions.

How would this work? Imagine if you were a taxi driver working to earn tokens in a “decentralized Uber.” The more rides you complete, the more you earn, and the more extensive your public transaction history (“gig economy resume”) becomes. This makes you a more attractive candidate outside of decentralized Uber, with protocols approaching you for more earning opportunities, for other driving gigs. You have successfully been a positive contributor to the protocol’s ecosystem and provide more societal value than playing a game.

RabbitHole will power this connection between protocols and their participants, showcasing potential earning opportunities that exist on the open ledger while helping protocols be more efficient with their ownership. RabbitHole has already helped many DeFi protocols increase participation rates through incentivized usage for new and existing users. But blockchain is the future platform of all work. We have started with DeFi and other crypto native businesses, of course. But as token-incentivized behaviors become better understood and appreciated in the ‘real world,’ we will inevitably go far beyond these initial use cases. We will deliver a token reward for any on-chain action.

Once this is possible, RabbitHole will expand its focus from helping protocols increase transaction volume to helping allocate labor to decentralized marketplaces. That is what will make these protocols genuinely sustainable. We will eventually eliminate the need for protocols to purely appeal to speculators and attention-seekers. Our core purpose will be helping protocols allocate attention and contribution to sustain meaningful participation.

Once that happens, RabbitHole will be one of the most efficient ways for anyone in the world to earn crypto based on their immutable track record — just an internet connection. And that’s how we can make crypto more accessible and meritocratic.

Protocols need to find a way to incentivize contributor behavior without sacrificing      long-term sustainability

We know this won’t be easy and happen overnight, but we believe that this mission is worth fighting for day in and day out regardless of what happens in the market.

If you share the same vision and mission, we’re looking for team members who want to play the long game and see crypto succeed in making a positive impact on society. You can look at our open roles and apply here.

Special thanks to Jarrod Dicker and Jonathan Glick for reviewing early drafts of this post and providing feedback.