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Intro: John Paller is an entrepreneur who envisions that there are almost 70% of people who will be working independently without an employer by 2028. He will make this happen with his company Apprentio who is working as an HR to provide at-risk youth opportunities in the emerging blockchain ecosystem.
John Paller, an entrepreneur, investor, futurist, blockchain builder, founder, Opolis and Chief Steward, ETH Denver Hackathon, a believer in humans. Yes, he is everything and is a down to earth person who has achieved several accolades in his life.
John Paller’s childhood was spent predominantly in the Mormon state of Utah. He describes it as a rather Dogmatic Society. He was a very anxious child and remembers that he used to ask many questions. Later he moved East to Denver, Colorado a few years after graduating from Southern Utah University. He was honoured with a business administration degree in accounting and finance in 1997.
As per Paller Denver was a pragmatic political society. He says so because there he found a mix of both political and cultural views. He called this state the purple state ethereum which relates well to the egalitarian approach. It means building a next-generation public infrastructure using smart contracts.
Benefits for independent workers
His career took a turn when he met Vitalik Buterin’s father, Dmitry while he was sitting in a front row at the celebration of the birth of Ethereum. He created one of the well-known Ethereum Hackathons. He also formed an initiative to help at-risk youth find job opportunities in the crypto industry.
According to Paller, there are many workers in the U.S. who will work independently and not tied to a particular employer within just a few years from now. But there are many necessities of life provided by employers in the U.S. rather than the government, which made the workers stick to their job irrespective of their will. But not to worry, keeping in mind the woes of the worker community, he has designed a new token-based employment co-op to give independent contractors benefits like medical insurance and retirement plans.
ETHDenver Hackathon a success story
Paller has served as the executive steward of ETHDenver, which was formed for monthly meetings with a couple of dozens of people. This went to hundreds in 2017. This rapid growth had inspired him to start a hackathon and he formed the first one in 2018 in which he called up many industrial players like Joe Lubin, Ethereum Co-founder, Erik Voorhees, cryptocurrency entrepreneur and dozens of other top luminaries.
Paller was hoping that around 400 people would attend the hackathon as ETH Waterloo in the fall of 2017 had 400 people. But it turned out to be a huge success for him as the turnaround was way beyond the expectation of 1500 people.
In 2021, the event was done virtually and there were more than 31,000 people from 94 countries who attended the conference. He further said that ETHDenver is transitioning into a true community-owned ecosystem called SporkDAO with a virtual launch party and NFT auction on June 26.
Helping Workers to reinstate
Paller has a degree in HR and Finance. He co-founded a company in 2002 PeoplePartners which focuses on recruiting in the financial sector. The company took a success and further merged with Lakeshore where Paller served as a CEO. The new firm focused on HR technologies and he referred to it as Uber for the economy. An app has been created by the firm to help companies find talent quickly.
His vision to form the firm is to help democratize employment. It is a lopsided social contract where employers have huge power over employees within U.S. society. Paller was introduced to bitcoin by a friend working at a technology company who told him it was the future of money. Paller read the Whitepaper and bought some of those.
Buying bitcoin was not only his blockchain destiny. In 2014, he attended a small entrepreneurship conference in California, where he met Dmitry Butrerin. The conference was a small intimate affair which was attended by only 30 people. This connection with Dmitry had given him exposure to the project from an early stage and in 2016. He was connected with Dmitry’s son who has helped him with his ideas.
Opportunities to the next generation
Paller has formed Apprentio in 2018 in collaboration with the local boys and girls club to provide at-risk youth with opportunities in the emerging blockchain ecosystem. Paller believes that the path of college, school, degree, a job is not for all. A four-year college degree in the U.S. costs $1,00,000, which obviously is not capable for all. The graduation rate for at-risk youth kids that go to college is like 5%- most of them drop out.
Hence, Paller assists 15 to 17 years of youth to fit the needs of the future. Apprentio is investing in a new generation of specialized workers. They will not be held for ransom by employers who demand that they work full time in one location in order to access the resources needed for survival.
Paller believes that the old model is not working for workers. He said that 70% of people in the U.S. labour force are sitting in jobs they do not like. It is because they do not have better options.
Hence, self-employment will be the new normal in the future. He said that there are almost 35 million workers out of a total of 160 million who are self-employed. The movement began in earnest and many of the workers are not returning to their jobs after the 2008 financial crisis. The people are working on and off and working from home and the trend is only increasing.
This rate of self-employment is increasing faster now due to the pandemic. He said that 90 million people by 2028 will work alone in the U.S.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
