Get Started
Sprinter is the best way to be seamlessly connected with meaningful work for top brands, from established enterprises to exciting tech startups. If you’re here, it likely means you’re also at least a bit curious about doing web3 work, whether or not you have much experience in the field to date.
That’s great! The web3 space is still maturing and changing rapidly. That means there are lots of opportunities to get involved, and also that everyone is still learning their way. Whether you’re an experienced web3 pro or merely web3-curious, the tips we discuss today in this edition of Future @ Work will be of use.
Class, there are no dumb questions. And, although it seems like an obvious one, we’ve stumbled on one of the toughest questions to answer because the field is still evolving. In short, what web3 is today may not be at all what it looks like tomorrow.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. DeFi projects like Polygon. DAOs such as the Uniswap exchange and the Decentraland virtual world.
They’re all part of the web3 universe. And while they all have very different applications, they have at least one major shared trait: they are technologies built on blockchains.
By virtue of being built on a blockchain, these technologies have some pretty big advantages over traditional web2 businesses.
Their records are immutable, meaning they cannot be erased or tampered with. Every transaction can be traced, tracked, and preserved.
They are also transparent, meaning they can be publicly viewed with little barriers to access — typically by any user with an internet connection.
Using smart contracts built on these blockchains, web3 businesses can automate certain key tasks to bring down costs.
Perhaps most importantly, they can also automate voting and control over their organizations, allowing for programmatic decentralization — the distribution of governance across numerous stakeholders, instead of just a select centralized few.
Of course, not all web3 organizations are decentralized, or ever hope to be. In fact, each of these traits of web3 may be expressed in differing degrees depending on the organization.
The broad strokes, though, is that web3 organizations are built on a blockchain. And in many cases, they are working to restore the original promise of the internet, as a place of open access and opportunity.
In a past edition of F@W, we spoke about how web3 enables you to build the business of you.
That’s because there are a number of web3 applications that include you owning your career — your work history, your reputation, your delivered projects, all stored on the blockchain.
Getting started can be tricky, though. The web3 space can feel like sifting through a constellation of cobwebs.
Top web2 talent face three major challenges when getting into web3 work.
Some common ways of finding work include…
Some people try to find web3 work on centralized platforms like Fiverr or Upwork.
Those boards suffer from a core flaw in their business model: they are heavily incentivized to charge you, the user, more.
That’s because they only make money on the spread between how much they can convince the client to spend for your services, and how little they can convince you to be willing to do those services for.
The difference is what the job board makes — and they collect it in fees, taking as much as 20-30% of your hard-earned cash for the pleasure of connecting you with work.
They are incentivized to do this because, in the end, they don’t answer to their users but to their investors, a core trait of the centralized web2 model.
And it’s not just fees that cause user experience to suffer. For top-end knowledge workers, most job boards become a race to the bottom, with competitors in lower cost-of-living regions undercutting prices.
Another option for users looking to jump-start their web3 careers is to take to social media.
Twitter is the most popular platform right now for users to engage in public, broad-based web3 discussions, with lots of projects posting about their latest work and new grants, bounties and jobs in the space.
Twitter is a great place to start. However, it can be easy to get lost in the sheer amount of content out there. Plus, the same job opportunities you see are seen by thousands of others on the platform, making it hard to stand out from the crowd.
If Twitter is where broad-based conversations happen, Discord is where you get specific. Almost every web3 project has a Discord community (although some primarily use Telegram and other platforms).
By joining the Discord community of specific projects they would like to work with, work-seekers can get even more targeted with their search for meaningful opportunities. Joining a Discord and raising your hand to tell the project leaders about your skills and expertise can be a great way to get connected.
If you do, here are some tips:
An example, from if we were seeking work on a web3 project’s Discord…
“Hi, I’m Sprinter, I love the promise of web3 in decentralizing work and enabling remote teams from across the globe to come together. I’m a trained software engineer with experience working with traditional job agencies — I also do contract work, so let me know if the project needs any help. Excited to build!”
Not all projects will be open to you introducing yourself this way. In fact, some Discord communities have explicit rules against it — particularly if it’s construed as you engaging in aggressive self promotion.
Even if they do allow it, you may fall into another challenge. Because web3 organizations are often decentralized, they are user-owned and user-led. They rely on community members coming together to build.
Sometimes, especially with smaller projects, that can come with the expectation that you will do work for web3 tokens instead of fiat currency. If you’re looking to build value in projects you believe in, and are bullish on their long-term prospects, that may be a great opportunity.
However, those seeking to make $USD or other fiat currencies doing web3 work may be disappointed by the opportunities they get when solely looking for work through Discord communities.
As you can tell, getting involved in web3 can be a bit messy. Thankfully, we’ve taken that into account.
At Sprinter, you are instantly connected with top companies, startups and web3 projects that are pre-vetted and able to pay you in the currency of your choice, from fiat $USD to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies and tokens.
Sprinter handles the procurement challenges, getting you pre-approved to contract with enterprises, so you can focus on what you love and do best.
As we mentioned earlier, one of the biggest challenges for those making the transition from web2 to web3 can be figuring out how to build a portfolio that gets you hired in the first place.
Sprinter isn’t just a remote work matching engine. It’s also a task management platform like Asana. That means managers can rapidly contract smaller projects to top Pros.
That creates a lower barrier of entry into web3 work than job sites that solely focus on full-time jobs or wide-spanning contract scopes.
On Sprinter, you can quickly and effectively be matched to web3 work opportunities without having to already be in the space. And getting started is simple — just go here to start filling out your profile.
