These days, interesting changes are happening in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. This is a focus of investment firm Multicoin Capital, which believes that the next wave won't be about buying and selling tokens, but rather earning directly through work.

Until now, the main way to participate in cryptocurrencies was simple: buying and trading assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana with traditional currency. But Multicoin's core perspective is different. Looking at the concept of an internet labor market, users perform actual tasks such as data labeling, bandwidth provision, and bug discovery, and receive cryptocurrency in return.

Multicoin's investment logic is this: the reason people will first own cryptocurrencies in the future may not be because they buy them, but because they generate income. This isn't just speculation; it's already underway within the Solana ecosystem. Decentralized physical infrastructure networks, or DePIN projects, are rewarding participants who provide resources like wireless coverage or map data.

The interesting part is the next stage. It’s expanding beyond simply providing hardware to tasks that require human judgment and effort—such as data classification, quality assessment, and completing actual assignments. Blockchain technology makes this possible because it enables automatic verification and instant settlement. Workers can be paid immediately in cryptocurrency upon task completion, without going through traditional employment processes like invoicing, approval, or delays.

The reason Multicoin invests is also clear. As companies reduce core teams through automation, demand for contributors on demand is increasing. If someone defines the tasks that the market needs, around 50k people worldwide can participate in this internet labor market and receive rewards. What happens when this intersects with blockchain?

An intriguing aspect is its relationship with AI. It’s not about humans competing with AI, but collaborating with it. For example, projects like Grass collect users’ idle bandwidth to train AI models. In this way, the internet labor market could evolve into a hybrid of human judgment and AI automation.

Ultimately, Multicoin’s bet is this: the next wave of cryptocurrency adoption will stem from a shift from speculation to income generation. They see the potential for the global labor market to be reshaped on blockchain. If the past decade was dominated by participation through purchasing, the future may see participation through work becoming the new standard.