Growing your career in web3
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Growing your career in web3
How to adjust to a work world where crypto is ubiquitous
DeOps Weekly is a subscriber-only roundup of the most important happenings in web3 curated for finance and operations leaders.
☕ Happy Thursday!
Welcome to our 41 new subscribers this week. Today’s DeOps Weekly is a 4.5 minute read.
Our second edition is all about handling the transition to web3 in your work life.
This Week’s Topic
📒 Making the transition to web3
Whether your current role is evolving to include crypto or you’re looking to level up in the industry, your “crypto job” in 2022 is like an “Internet job” in 1996.
It will be ubiquitous.
Instead of waiting for the moment to pass you by, it’s best to stay ahead of the game.
Why you should care: Even in a down market, it’s clear that decentralized assets are here to stay. Crypto companies continue to raise VC money, and “traditional” brands are going all in on this wide-open frontier.
Like it or not, the recent regulatory news shows that web3 is maturing as an industry:
The FASB has decided to treat cryptocurrency at fair value
The IRS has provided clearer guidance on 1040 forms
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its new tax reporting framework
How to prepare: The best way to start is to continuously educate yourself and don’t stop. Whether you’re a neophyte or you’ve been around the block a few times, this field is constantly in flux so it’s impossible to be an expert on all aspects of the cutting-edge.
Use web3! There’s no better way to stay up to speed than to get your hands dirty with the tech, rather than simply reading and watching videos. Even just an hour of on-chain activity can go a long way in relating to and working with your future (or current) clients.
Luckily there are plenty of tools and resources to get up and running (safely!) in the decentralized world:
RabbitHole and Layer3 teach you how to use web3 in a safe way.
a16z has some of the best educational resources on NFTs, DAOs, and crypto.
Our friends at CryptoCFOs have heaps of educational content for finance pros who are looking to get into crypto.
Gilded’s Accounting Partner Program was created to provide accounting firms with the tools they need to equip their clients for success and to make the most of this new revenue opportunity.
Next steps: Continuous education is imperative, but how do you actually land that crypto finance job or client?
You need to build your network with other crypto finance pros and demonstrate your knowledge of web3.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
Follow and connect with thought leaders and others building in the space (The Gilded team is always happy to connect.) Share what you’re learning along the way on Twitter or LinkedIn with threads, anecdotes, and informative posts. Reach out to your network to let them know you’re interested in a career in crypto. Learn (and teach others) how crypto transactions should be treated for businesses and DAOs.
If you have a passion for crypto (and show it), it won’t be long before you not only find yourself working with crypto clients, but they will be coming to you:
Sharon Yip, co-founder and CEO at Polygon Advisory Group, a firm focused on crypto businesses and traders, shares hot tips and takes regularly.
The Bottom Line: With fast-growing crypto organizations in constant need of operational support, finance pros will play a critical role in how these organizations scale. Now’s the time to show your chops.
From the DeOps World
📚 What we’re reading
Apple prevents NFTs from unlocking new benefits
On the other hand, they enabled mobile apps to offer in-app purchases (IAPs) to sell NFTs or offer NFT services (i.e. minting, listing, transfers). The problem: this comes with a 30% Apple tax. It’s clear Apple understands that they must work with crypto apps, but only on their own terms. Apple's gating of NFT sales in the App Store will go down in history as the high water mark for the influence of web2 platforms.
It's all downhill from here. Why?
Technology has a way of changing power structures. With web3, consumers are being presented with a new economic model: one that benefits them just for joining certain communities. The infrastructure is being rebuilt to accommodate an increasingly decentralized world and people are less inclined than ever to fork over money to "gatekeepers."
Meanwhile, crypto technology — which feels so primitive and disjointed today — is getting sleeker and easier to use by the minute.
And there really isn't anything Apple can do about it, except clutch tightly to the golden goose.
Dive deeper with this thread from Daniel Mason
Three million new crypto wallets unleashed from Reddit
In July, Reddit launched “collectible avatars” (aka NFTs) for users to customize and set as profile pictures. Since then, three million new crypto wallets were created, and the avatars soared to a $100M market cap and now rank as a top-10 collection on OpenSea.
Our take: Rewarding existing users with NFTs (but naming them something more approachable like “collectible avatars”) will usher in the next wave of NFT enthusiasts and new collections.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried backtracks on Crypto Regulatory Framework
Last week, Bankman-Fried published his framework on how to regulate crypto. The framework was widely criticized amongst crypto-natives for being harmful to DeFi and Bankman-Fried has since replied to these criticisms and adjusted his viewpoints.
Read about the latest developments from Blockworks
Listen and Learn
🎧 Decentralized Ops - The Podcast
Alyssa Rambeau, CPA and Solutions Expert at Gilded left a 20-year career in traditional accounting to help organizations solve the challenges associated with cryptocurrency and NFTs. Alyssa shares what it takes to become a crypto CPA and why you don’t have to dump your legacy tools just yet.
Highlights:
Alyssa's journey to crypto and web3 as an accounting pro
Why the lack of operational guidance and process in crypto is a problem (and how to solve this)
Underestimating the difficulty of understanding blockchain transactions
Complexities behind accounting for multiple blockchains, exchanges, NFTs, and various DeFi transactions
Connect with Alyssa on LinkedIn and Twitter
Decentralized Ops is now streaming on all major platforms.
👾 Job Alert: Our friends at Blocknative have an opening for an Accounting Manager. This is a great opportunity for an accountant to make the leap to a fast-growing startup with exposure to crypto.
That’s a wrap for the second edition of DeOps Weekly. Hope you enjoyed it.
As always, feel free to pass this along to any who might find it useful. Got feedback or a topic you’d like me to cover? Leave a comment or drop me a line.
Cheers,
Gil
Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter
Brought to you by Gilded 💡
This newsletter is strictly for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or tax advice. As always, do your own research.
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