{"id":7929,"date":"2021-06-22T10:33:42","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T14:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=7929"},"modified":"2021-06-29T01:29:10","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T05:29:10","slug":"rescuing-crypto-workers-from-terrible-us-job-conditions-john-paller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2021\/06\/22\/rescuing-crypto-workers-from-terrible-us-job-conditions-john-paller","title":{"rendered":"Rescuing crypto workers from terrible US job conditions: John Paller"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Paller is training a new generation of blockchain workers and giving them the tools to live free from the chains of full-time employment. <\/b><\/p>\n

After a chance conversation with a \u201cRussian dude\u201d wearing a weird T-shirt at a 2014 conference \u2014 Vitalik Buterin\u2019s father, Dmitry \u2014 John Paller\u2019s life was transformed by having a front-row seat for the birth of Ethereum. He went on to create the largest Ethereum hackathon and founded an initiative to help at-risk youth find job opportunities in the burgeoning crypto industry.<\/p>\n

According to Paller, the majority of workers in the United States will be independent and not tied to a particular employer within just a few years from now. But with so many of the necessities of life provided by employers rather than the government, he has set up a new token-based employment co-op to provide independent contractors with benefits, such as medical insurance and retirement plans.<\/p>\n

Purple state Ethereum<\/h4>\n

Growing up in the predominantly Mormon state of Utah, which he describes as \u201ca rather dogmatic society,\u201d Paller remembers that as a child, he \u201calways asked too many questions.\u201d Not feeling like he fit in, he moved east \u2014 over the Rocky Mountains \u2014 to Denver, Colorado a few years after graduating from Southern Utah University with a business administration degree in accounting and finance in 1997.<\/p>\n

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\"Fan<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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\"Icelandic<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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\"Crypto<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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\"Before<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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\"Bitcoin<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Denver, according to Paller, is \u201cmore pragmatic politically \u2014 we don\u2019t get caught up in political dogma as much as other states seem to do.\u201d This, he surmises, is due to a mixture of geographical and cultural influences, with a libertarian wild west culture from Wyoming in the north merging with a more \u201cliberal, progressive\u201d approach from the south in New Mexico and west from California.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Ethereum as a concept really relates well to this sort of egalitarian approach \u2014 building next-generation public infrastructure using smart contracts. We have a good tech scene here in Colorado.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He serves as the executive steward of ETHDenver<\/a>, which started with monthly meetups of \u201ca couple dozen people\u201d before growing into the hundreds suddenly in 2017. This rapid growth inspired him to organize a hackathon in February 2018, a project for which he called up various industry players, such as Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin<\/a>, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Erik Voorhees<\/a>, and dozens of other top projects and luminaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping for 401 people, and the reason for that was because ETH Waterloo in the fall of 2017 had 400 people, and we wanted to be the biggest one ever,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The first event, which Paller describes as \u201cpart Burning Man, part SXSW, part DevCon, and part Hack the North,\u201d was a huge success with 1,500 participants. With four years running so far, the event has become a home turf of the Ethereum movement. \u201cThis year, we did a fully virtual event, and we hosted over 31,000 people from 94 countries,\u201d Paller explains proudly, adding that ETHDenver is transitioning into a true community-owned ecosystem called SporkDAO with a virtual launch party and NFT auction on June 26.<\/p>\n

Worker woes<\/h4>\n

Paller\u2019s background is in human resources and finance, and in 2002, he co-founded a staffing company called PeoplePartners to focus on recruiting in the financial sector. After some success, the company managed to buy and merge with another, Lakeshore, where Paller continued to serve as CEO, while the new firm focused on HR technologies in what he refers to as the \u201cUber-for economy\u201d \u2014 where the firm was trying to create an app that would help companies find talent as quickly as Uber finds rides.<\/p>\n

Much of Paller\u2019s vision for his HR firm revolved around a vague desire to help \u201cdemocratize employment,\u201d referring to what he saw as a lopsided social contract where employers have a huge amount of power over employees within U.S. society. Questions started to gnaw at him \u2014 Why is employment so disproportionate in power and value distribution? Why is healthcare in the United States tied to employment?<\/em><\/p>\n

It was while reading more broadly into economics and game theory, in hopes of answering these questions, that Paller came across Bitcoin from a friend working at a technology startup who told him it was the future of money. \u201cI read the white paper, and I kind of didn\u2019t get it, but I bought some,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

My name is Buterin, Dmitry Buterin<\/h4>\n

Buying some Bitcoin on a whim was, however, not Paller\u2019s only harbinger of blockchain destiny. While attending a small entrepreneurship conference in California in early 2014, he met Dmitry Buterin<\/a>. \u201cThere was only probably like 30 people there, so it was a very intimate affair, and he was the interesting, you know, Russian dude with the weird T-shirts,\u201d he says. As fathers, they connected over their families and because \u201cpolitically speaking, we\u2019re both libertarians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to this chance connection, Paller had a direct line to Vitalik\u2019s father, who made \u201csocial media posts on the Ethereum white paper and the ICO.\u201d This meant that he had exposure to the project from an early stage and, in early 2016, asked Dmitry to connect him with his son, Vitalik, who \u201cwas kind enough to spend several hours with me talking about my ideas for use cases. In hindsight, he was very gracious because my use case ideas were terrible \u2014 I didn\u2019t understand decentralization at all,\u201d he recounts, adding that his mind was still stuck in the old world of centralized corporate structures.<\/p>\n

He eventually did have \u201cthe lights go on,\u201d at which point he decided to do a full pivot in life. \u201cIt was almost kind of like my version of a midlife crisis,\u201d he explains regarding his sudden decision to sell his business, effectively turning his back on a successful career.<\/p>\n

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\n
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\n\t\t\t\t
\n \n
\n
\"Fan<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n

Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t
\n \n
\n
\"Icelandic<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n

What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t
\n \n
\n
\"Crypto<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n

Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t
\n \n
\n
\"Before<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n

Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t
\n \n
\n
\"Bitcoin<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n

Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Apprentio and the next generation<\/h4>\n

In 2018, Paller co-created Apprentio<\/a> in collaboration with a local boys and girls club in hopes of providing at-risk youth with opportunities in the emerging blockchain ecosystem. Paller believes that the commonly prescribed path of high school\/college\/degree\/job is not for everyone, especially considering that a four-year college degree in the U.S. can easily result in $100,000 of debt, and the \u201cgraduation rate for at-risk youth kids that go to college is like 5% \u2014 most of them drop out,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assist these kids \u2014 15\u201317 years old \u2014 get involved in the blockchain technology space by participation in hackathons, building projects, mentoring, tutorials and free resources, and then ultimately hooking them up with projects that are looking for interns.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Paller\u2019s view, Apprentio is investing in a new generation of specialized workers to fit the needs of the future \u2014 not only the needs of companies but of the workers themselves. With the ability to work remotely and for several projects at the same time, Paller envisions a future with workers who are empowered by choice \u2014 instead of being effectively held for ransom by employers who demand they work full time in one location in order to access the resources needed for survival.<\/p>\n

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Thanks @DenverKidsInc<\/a> and @DenverScho<\/a> for supporting @apprent_io<\/a> student workshop! Shout out to https:\/\/t.co\/8h1M2ocdVt<\/a> cofounder @NMRCrypto and mentor @nickw_13 for a great @EthereumDenver<\/a> experience! #ETHDenver<\/a> #ETHDenver2019<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/KkvPTOOzgQ<\/a><\/p>\n

— L'Teisha Ryan (@LTeishaRyan) February 18, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n