Emi Wu finished typing the last of his translation of Death, Grieving, and Cognitive Measures of Sadness, confirmed that everything was up-to-code, and stretched back in his chair. Most of his recent work involved translating MOOC contents into Mongolian for psychology professors. It was easy for him, and left him plenty of time to work on personal projects and built up his EXPerience. His coffee was nearly empty but still warm enough to enjoy a moment’s serenity. Wu’s eyes idly flitted about the room and landed on a dusty, heavy, leather file case. It had belonged to his parents, stuffed full with family documents and a little attached tag, “Биднийг санаарай”. Remember us. He’d looked through it before; it included his mother’s and father’s résumés, non-standardized antique precursors to the EXPCard, that could be faked, needed supplemental proof, and could be destroyed like all flimsy paper. Wu chuckled every time he thought about how such a rudimentary system had survived so long. Skills had to be recognized by the individual and connected to experiences. People had to actually search for work, and apply to employers by delivering documents by hand or email. What if the company had no registered location because it was online? Did they just cast it into the wind?

The folder also held proof of their education. In the old days, people had to keep copies—again, on unreliable paper—of transcripts of the courses they completed, with arbitrary letter grades and percentiles to denote their performance in comparison to others enrolled in the same course. One in four people went to university and came out with mountains of debt, forgotten facts, and more flimsy papers. Now, Wu had only to pick what he wanted to learn online, make sure the EXPTracker on his account was switched on, and begin exploring, learning, and creating. Every accomplishment, every project, and every collaboration would automatically be added to his EXPCard, relevant skills extrapolated and added to bolster his skill set. He tracked his competence not with grades and degrees, but by the number of people who had searched the ledger, came upon his education and experience (read: data), wanted his combination of skills, and contacted him with contracts. No one needed to sell themselves to employers—EXPCard categorized, advertised, and linked everyone for them.

Snapping back to reality, Wu crouched back over his computer and opened up a message to the psychology professor:

Mongolian translation is done. If there are any problems 
or further needed translations in the future, I hope you 
will consider me for the task again.

Thanks again,

Emi Wu

Have I earned some EXPosure? Send it here: wu_emi623.exp.com/exposure

EXPosure; the other key currency of EXPCards. Built upon old-fashioned review systems and improved with the blockchain ‘trust economy’, EXPosure was a way for satisfied employers to vouch for your skills and service. They didn’t complain; complaints went directly to the EXPCard organization, and A.I. could follow a trail of in-app correspondences and identify extortion before it even reached the support centre. EXPosure bolstered skills differently than EXPerience; the former made service and social skills decay slower, while the latter slowed down decay of technical skills. The EXPCard creators built the system to make sure people didn’t just learn or just work, but kept doing both, and it worked. Sure, less than one in one hundred people now went to accredited universities (casually called ‘purebre(a)d chicken pens’ on social networks now), but more people were “generally proficient” with diverse skill sets. After the EXPCard boom, it turned out that being able to vary the work they do and use most of their skills gave people the fulfillment needed to pull a lot of people out of socially-developed mental illnesses.

He wished it had worked for his parents, too.

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Premise: “EXPCard”, a blockchain organization built on tracking informal education, takes off in the connected world. University enrolment plummets. People track their learning in EXPerience (personal accomplishments and projects) and EXPosure (others vouch for your service and accomplishments for them). Both of these incrementally lose value over time, to encourage “lifelong learning”. Resultingly, more people are “generally proficient” with a diverse skill set. They can pay to read other users’ educational history (read: data), to run searches for specific experience and skill set combinations, and to contact users through a secure communication platform for work.