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Imagine getting into bed tonight and plugging your phone into its charger on your nightstand like always. You set the alarm, and just before closing your eyes to sleep, you start up a special app—one which invites hackers to take over your phone. It isn’t a dream—but it isn’t necessarily a nightmare either. It’s the future of the gig economy. 

In the coming years, you’re going to hear a lot about our new decentralized sharing economy. It’s a clever way of distributing computing power over a wide network for a variety of tasks, which range from performing mathematical computations to mining for cryptocurrencies. All you need to get started is to install what we call “gigware.” It’s a benevolent use for the same kind of malware a hacker relies on to break into your computers and phones, except that it generates a tangible benefit, whether you’re a company or individual user. Think of it as the next evolution of the sharing economy powered by artificial intelligence. 

How exactly does this work? Because there are nearly four billion internet users spread around the world, and each of us owns two or three connected devices on average, this creates a gigantic pool of processing power sitting dormant at any given time. That idle processor time then becomes a valuable resource that can be used to solve socially important problems like medical research, or it can be harnessed by animators working on new digital creations. Think of it as distributed computing, in which large computer problems are broken down into smaller segments that can be calculated on multiple regular computers, instead of on centralized super computers.

The business case for distributed computing: In this era of increasingly complicated cyberattacks, data scraping and personal identity tracking, it might seem ~odd~ to suggest that someday soon consumers will willingly allow strangers into their devices while they're not looking. Gigware is a clever way of distributing computing power over a wide network for a variety of tasks, which range from performing mathematical computations to mining for cryptocurrencies. Most of the time, it generates a tangible benefit, whether you’re a company or individual user. While there is still plenty of uncertainty around the role that blockchain might play in the next five to 10 years, gigwear is one of a number of new uses of the technology. Decentralized crowdsourced projects make sense. When they're offering financial incentives to users, they are easier to monitor, execute and track through smart contracts. There's a lot of money to be saved – and made – over the next decade. 

Emerging Tech Trend: Sharing economy v2.0, powered by web v3.0

Key Insight: It's possible to donate or sell your idle connected device time to third parties. Computing tasks harness and use the compute power on your devices. Distributed computing infrastructure coordinates tasks for any number of purposes, such as difficult computations or resource-intense rendering. Monetizing device downtime signals an evolution in the sharing economy. 

Deeper Cuts: Web 1.0, the beginning of the internet age, introduced static web pages, e-commerce and email. The web 2.0 enabled decentralized collaboration and creativity by ushering in social networks, sharing economies, cloud computing and dynamic self-sustaining content repositories like Wikipedia and Github. Just as cloud computing revolutionized how businesses manage and store information, blockchain will enable a new wave of innovation for information technology and databases. Distributed ledgers can encourage massive collaboration on a larger scale and usher in web 3.0.
 

Examples: This will usher in the sharing economy v2.0. Golem.network is a decentralized network for sharing and leveraging large amounts of computing power. Otoy is lowering 3D/ visual effects production costs by creating a decentralized, distributed network of partners that can chip in spare processing power with RNDR tokens. The Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol that facilitates decentralized file sharing and cloud computing. 

Near-Futures Scenarios (2023 - 2028):

• Optimistic: Trusted gigware marketplaces emerge. Everyday people understand what gigware is, how it works, and how to keep their personal information protected. We're all earning money when our devices are idle, while startups gain access to affordable compute power. 
   
• Pragmatic: Gigware marketplaces evade regulatory scrutiny and oversight. The ecosystem emerges without any norms or standards, and without mapping out tax policies. Government agencies aren't sure of how to classify gigware revenue. Within the decade, legal challenges mount and call into question all income derived from gigware and cryptocurrency transactions.

• Catastrophic: Public utility companies aren't prepared for a growing use of devices during off-peak or typical downtimes. Demand for gigware exceeds public utility capacity. This causes strain on energy grids and unexpected outages. Our supply of electricity becomes unreliable – around the same time that electric vehicles reach critical mass. Gigware might be earning us money while we sleep, but it's also preventing us from getting to work, to school and to the doctor.
  
  Action Meter:

Watchlist: Blockstack, Lightning Labs, RSK, Golem, GridCoin, Rosetta@Home, Folding@Home,Albert@Home, Comcute, DENIS@Home, DreamLab.

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Just Launched: 2020 Entertainment, Media and Tech Trends Report

How To Do Strategic Planning Like A Futurist

2019 Emerging Tech Trends Report - Launched at SXSW. The Future Today Institute’s 2019 Tech Trends Report is in its 12th year of publication and has received more than 7.8 million cumulative views. This is our biggest tech trends report ever––a 30% increase over last year, when we identified 225 trends and 10 weak signals. This sharp increase has to do with the advancement of many different technologies, which is causing acceleration across many different fields. Download a free copy of the full report or purchase a printed copy – details for both are here. View the entire report on Slideshare (part 1 and part 2) or read a synopsis on Medium.
 

The Big Nine. Future Today Institute founder Amy Webb's new best-selling book tackles the future of artificial intelligence and the urgent steps we need to make now to set it on the right track. The Big Nine is currently available in English everywhere books are sold: Amazon, Indiebound, Powell's, Barnes and Noble, Apple iBooks, Hudson Booksellers, or support your favorite local bookstore. International language editions, including Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese, Turkish, Romanian, Italian, German and Ukrainian are forthcoming in 2019 and 2020. Says John Noonan, National security expert and former nuclear launch officer: "Amy Webb has written one of the most important books of the year and everyone should read it.” 

For workshops, research collaborations and speaking requests, visit the Future Today Institute website.

FTI In The News 

Marketplace: How much longer until people want to date Alexa? Listen here.

Financial Times: Book review: The Big Nine by Amy Webb. Read here.

Silicon Republic: Futurist Amy Webb envisions how AI technology could go off the rails. Read here. 

Atlantic: The Problem With Diversity in Computing. Read here.

Venturebeat: AI Weekly: China, the United States, and the struggle for global leadership. Read here.

NBC: The Future Is Coming - What you can do to prepare yourself. Watch here.

Harvard Business Review: How AI Will Amplify Human Intelligence. Read here.

Fast Company: Privacy in 2034: A corporation owns your DNA (and maybe your body). Read more here.