Today’s gig economy is more pronounced than ever thanks to the tech boom that revolutionized how to find contingent work, and how consumers pay for services. The ride-sharing industry is a classic example of this transformation — have you ever paid your Uber driver with cash or check?
Now, with the proliferation of blockchain technology, the rising gig economy, which currently employs
By traditional career timelines, “Alpha Kids,” a coined term for the generation born after Gen Z, will enter the workforce by 2032. Opportunities for gig work could invite them to the labor market much sooner. We don’t have any employment statistics for this demographic yet, but they will be the first generation that doesn’t know the world before the tech boom, and will grow up familiar with cryptocurrency, perhaps even learning it in school.
We do, however, have copious data on Alpha Kids’ millennial parents. Not only do
Will the apple fall far from the tree?
At this point in time it is not difficult to see the Alpha Kids generation being more willing to accept cryptocurrencies as payment for work as they move into the workforce. Given the rate at which crypto is growing in general, it is highly likely that it will be more widely adopted thus creating more demand for it as payment.
Crypto is still in the early stages of adoption, but over the next five to 10 years it will likely become much more normal for people to accept crypto as a form of payment. Many times the hindrance to adoption of new technologies is reliant on a willingness to test new experiences along with a flexibility that may not be present within a more traditional generation. By the time they are ready to earn income the crypto market itself should be much less volatile, thus paving the way for crypto to be a more stable form of income.
Younger, more technically inclined generations like Alpha Kids will lead the way in the widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies. They consistently show the ability and desire to gravitate toward more unconventional aspects of life and cryptocurrencies are a great way for that pattern to continue.
Crypto provides the means for future generations to have more control over their own value, much like the gig economy offers people autonomy over the jobs they choose to tackle. Crypto users harbor a growing mistrust for long-term, established oversight, and generally look for more opportunities to have a higher level of control over their finances than previous generations were able to have.
Will Alpha Kids get paid in crypto for their side hustle, or negotiate salaries by the bitcoin? It’s very possible. But without doubt, technology will continue to uproot traditional business processes.
The key to competing with established methods of doing things is offering a quicker, easier and more efficient manner of completion. In the case of cryptocurrencies, a younger generation has more aptitude toward learning new technologies and applying them to how they earn and spend money within their daily lives.
