Companies have been trading employees in exchange for cryptocurrency tokens as part of their compensation packages. This practice is often referred to as tokenization or employee stock ownership plans. Nvidia, the technology company founded by Jensen Huang, has recently adopted this approach.
The concept involves providing a limited number of tokens to each employee in exchange for a salary, and the value of those tokens can be used to buy stocks in the company. The idea is that employees will have an incentive to work hard and contribute to the company's success, knowing that their compensation comes with some financial rewards. However, the token economy has not yet produced clear returns on investment.
The Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, recently stated a test for whether an engineer is worth keeping: if a US$500,000 engineer's annual AI token consumption came in under US$250,000, half their salary would be withheld. If that threshold was met, he warned that "I am going to be deeply alarmed." While the practice has sparked debate among experts and employees alike, its long-term viability remains uncertain.