Where Work Equals Passion
The vision that brought ZTX to life
Ten years ago, many things we take for granted today were unfathomable.
Just a few examples include:
- multiplayer video games spawning global leagues and players with multimillion-dollar earnings from real-time donations collected through online game streaming platforms
- overnight celebrities garnering fame for 15-second videos of self-deprecating humor that generate millions of views and, if sustained over a period of time, brand endorsements as well as Soho House membership
- SWIFT-less transfer of funds at a global scale, often through currencies existing only digitally and christened with bizarre natural element-esque monikers, to finance purchases of drawings of monkeys and deformed monkeys
Tech advancements over time have changed culture, and especially how we earn and spend money. For the majority of people throughout most of our history, the origin of our income did not match the destination to which that capital was deployed. You studied or worked to get a job, pay the bills, then spent what time and money you have left on your true interests whether it be music, art, writing, games, sports or barhopping.
But with the advent of technology like AI, tasks are decreased. From chores to corporate bookkeeping, many things can be chalked off from our to-do list and this frees up time.
Simultaneously, it begins to alter the widely accepted definition of labor. For what labor really is is a set of actions that provide perceived value to society.
Labor and the value of labor are determined by supply and demand.
Personal trainers who force you to fold your body into different shapes to maximize calorie burn were not previously a type of laborer, but it is now. A Ninja can make (tens of) millions of dollars a year off of his Fortnite streams.
We are undergoing a seminal period in the development of the human lifestyle because we now have the foundations to build a lifestyle where labor equals passion.
Today, ZEPETO is a web2 embodiment of the ever-evolving ‘labor=passion’ proposition. As an avatar platform built in late 2018, ZEPETO now has over 340 million lifetime users around the world. It is home to over 2 million creators producing 3D virtual fashion items like shirts, jeans, bags, hats, and shoes. On any given day there are over 3 million transactions of such virtual fashion items, and many of these virtual fashion creators are making more money than ‘real’ jobs in other industries.
What’s fascinating is that these creators are often people who dreamt of becoming designers or working in fashion, or becoming influencers online by customizing their looks; now they are turning such aspirations into serious careers through ZEPETO. Similarly, there are people who wanted to work in interior design or architecture who are now working as virtual architects in ZEPETO, not to mention singers, models, actors, and more.
All of this without any crypto element attached.
Now, imagine if this create-to-earn approach is bolstered by a web3 framework.
Offering robust incentivization mechanisms via crypto for these participants in an already established virtual economy will deepen the evolution of labor that we have been witnessing.
The world that we are trying to build at ZTX (ZepetoX) — the web3 effort of ZEPETO, along with partners like Jump Crypto — is an effort to contribute to the establishment of a neo-humanity whose workforce revolves around virtual content creators — the architects of buildings, designers of clothes, writers of songs or beats, and producers of films or games. Depending on the games or applications published on ZTX, the workforce could also expand to include virtual athletes, racers, farmers, or dragon slayers.
The endeavor to produce value via virtual labor is an undertaking tantamount to the pursuit of new frontiers in space. Whereas one is a mission to excavate new corporeal habitats, the other is a charge to forge new cerebral habitats. In the metaverse, builders and users alike need to be cognizant of the momentous transition of the human condition that they are nurturing.
Here, we are all Amerigo Vespuccis partaking in the great cartography of new worlds.
