For much of crypto’s history, the primary use case has been simple: buying tokens and trading them.

Now, some investors and builders believe the industry may be moving toward a different model altogether: earning crypto instead of buying it.

One version of that idea is what venture firm Multicoin Capital calls Internet Labor Markets (ILM) — networks in which users receive tokens by contributing work, resources or expertise.

“The reason people get their first crypto in the future won’t be because they bought it,” Sengupta said in an interview with CoinDesk. “It’ll be because they earned it.”

The concept has begun gaining attention, particularly in ecosystems like Solana, where a growing number of projects are experimenting…