Newconomics 2023 - Meet our Speakers: Alexandra Overgaag

Sign up for Newconomics in Lisbon so you don’t miss out. We have a great group of expert speakers, panellists and attendees to network with and chat about the future of web3 tech and how it may impact the way we work and get paid. One of these experts is Alexandra Overgaag, founder and CEO of Thrilld Labs, which allows Web3 projects, professional investors, developers and Web3 service providers to find each other and work together. 

Thrilld Labs' Vision for a Decentralized Future in Business and Work

I believe Web3 will trickle down everywhere. It will affect so many things - governance in societies, legal institutions, financial opportunities. Inventions that we can’t even imagine yet because of Web3’s inherent interaction and convergence with other emerging technologies, including the Internet of Things, and, of course, artificial intelligence. I’m not a true technologist, but I hope to help the clever minds in the space connect and build. That’s where Thrilld Labs also comes in. 

For me, Web3, as a socio-technological concept, represents a transformative shift in today's world. Having obtained three degrees in law, international relations and European Studies, and politics and digital technologies, I was essentially trained to join what I call today the ‘legacy’ institutions. Having followed crypto since 2017 and having studied institutional decay and rigidity during my studies, I realised - gradually - that Web3 has the power to cause that much-needed systemic shift. That we essentially need across a range of the domains that constitute society. 

I think that Web3 can spur work and employment globally. Technological innovation based on blockchain can enable (fractionalized) asset, data, and value transfers whilst lowering operating costs through faster and decentralised solutions, promoting sustained and inclusive economic growth. Additionally, I anticipate significant changes in the future of work due to increased automation. I hope that the decentralised tech stack can route back and redistribute public and private financial gains to individuals and businesses, to create a more equitable financial level playing field overall. 

Employment is important for income, but work is oftentimes also crucial for personal development and dignity. I believe that artificial intelligence will most likely demolish a great part of the labour market as we know it. If true, this is arguably problematic because many states don’t have the answers in place and no one has the universal human right to full-time employment, upward mobility or overall economic well-being. So can we still be excited about the future, in that regard?  

I think so. A lot can be said about universal basic income and so on. Simply put, I believe that in the more distant future, many may choose to do a type of labour because it brings them intrinsic satisfaction, self-realisation or other psychological (well-)being that relates to the self. Individuals may keep working (or at least, be occupied), for instance, as volunteers, or they may find other occupational behaviours that can satisfy the thirst for recognition and cause. Work and remuneration may be disentangled, at least for the more lucky people in the global society. It’s up to states, and perhaps to the visionaries of Web3 itself, to make sure that the benefits of automation will be somewhat equitably distributed.”

Find out more about the new economics of Web3 and how it can change the way we work together at the Newconomics event in Lisbon. Full details and registration can be found on the website.