The Rise of the Digital Nomad

What is a “Nomad”?

In history, we view a nomad as a member of a community of people who constantly travel around the world, moving to different places, looking for grasslands for their animals. Other forms of nomads are those who travel from place to place in order to make a living. Nomads all move to different locations for various reasons whether it’s for game, livestock, or edible plants, or just to buy/sell items. Individuals are most likely to be a nomad when there are more scarce materials in a certain area, causing them to constantly move because mobility is the most efficient strategy for people in these types of environments to survive.

The Digital Age

The internet has allowed for business to be conducted in many new ways. Technology has disrupted the way we live our daily lives, and has opened up business opportunities that would have never previously been feasible. We are now able to completely change the way we live and work.

For example, with smart technologies, we have brought together the phone, camera, alarm clock, notepad, and computer all into one device. Technology is making our lives more efficient every day as it continues to evolve. The internet, and how we are now able to exchange information, has brought about a new type of individual in the business world, the digital nomad.

The Digital Nomad

The digital nomad is an individual who is able to work remotely, and travel around the world at the same time. Digital nomads are taking advantage of global marketplaces at their fingertips to bring value to businesses in all corners of the globe.

This article in the Australian Financial Review yesterday brought this statistic to light;

“About 2.5 million Australians are now employed on a casual basis, according to The Australian Bureau of Statistics. That’s more than a quarter of the workforce, up from 13 per cent in 1990s.”

This quarter of the workforce is something that CanYa is helping to address through our marketplace of services. We have actually seen that 23% of employees around the world have actually taken advantage of this ability to do remote work. A lot of people not only enjoy working remotely, but they have also found through studies that working remotely can lead to a benefit for both employees and employers.

In addition to this, there are more studies that have found that millennials are more likely to want to work for an organisation if they offer the ability to work remotely.

Freelancers and CanYa

With CanYa, we have built an extremely easy platform for freelancers and digital nomads to take advantage of the opportunity to not be confined to an office space to conduct their line of business. By using some of the dApps built on CanYa’s platform, freelancers are able to find work simply and easily.

CANWork is a decentralised marketplace where individuals are able to post different tasks they need to get done, and freelancers can offer their services to complete them, and be paid in cryptocurrencies. Some of the other supporting dApps in the CanYa ecosystem that enable freelancers to easily work independently are CANInvoice, CANShare and CANTrack.

With CANInvoice, freelancers are able to use templates to build their own invoices that allow for excellent record keeping that is immutable saved onto IPFS and the blockchain. These invoices are completely customisable, sleek and straightforward.

One of the other CanYa tools, CanTrack, is essentially the project manager’s best friend. You are able to track all the time you have spent on different tasks, and then allowing you to send over your invoices with the proper fees. The benefits of this are two fold; firstly you can clearly work out which parts of your process are the most time consuming, and secondly have a clear record of your works completed to submit with surety to your employer.

Think of CanTrack as an easier alternative to MS Project. A tool that offers similar utility, but is cumbersome and difficult to use. All CANApps are self-sovereign, intuitive, and simple to use.

By using these different technologies, it enables users to work remotely, and allow them to have the freedom to travel around the globe at the same time, without requiring to be limited by a landbound location.

What the Future holds for Digital Nomads

One of the biggest things that older generations have shared with us, is that we can achieve anything that we put our minds to. Taking advantage of different opportunities is more important for millennials, largely because the options available to explore are so much cheaper and readily available. The workforce has never been more uncertain, yet littered with opportunity.

We are able to see that these digital nomads value their freedom and opportunities much more than worrying about immediately planting roots. They can have a better life/work balance by accessing a global market of employment options while exploring, and making use of different timezones, climates and lifestyles.

Digital nomads are able to take advantage of these generationally unique opportunities such as how easy it is to travel, and fly around the world, and even sleep on a strangers couch if they want to!

In comparison to 20–30 years ago, airlines were extremely expensive, and international travel was an exclusive luxury for the wealthy. Now, we are able to fly on budget airlines and go virtually anywhere in the world for a reasonable price. We are seeing many people flying to parts of Asia where the cost of living is cheap, diverse and exotic ; while some travel to Europe, or Australia for the unique scenery and varied experiences. No matter where you are geographically the opportunities for work in the digital economy are the same in this continually connected world.

With these factors in play, the amount of digital nomads around the world will only continue to grow. The gig economy is only just beginning to take hold, but we are very proud at CanYa and Bountysource to be facilitating this lifestyle of employment and the adoption of cryptocurrencies at the same time.

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