You still need to show the customer or they won't pay the invoice; but they're less interested in seeing you busy, and more interested in the deliverable they're paying you for
Precisely! They are not paying you to do your work, they are paying you to solve their problem. They don't care about utilization rates.
I wonder if that's worth revisiting now that we have crypto.
This is something I have thought a little about and think you are onto something. Crypto is helping to redefine value, and the way we trade it. I think that many organizations are actually working more in a decentralized way through their departments, and their "processes" are the "rules of the blockchain" they have to adhere to - but otherwise, they are acting independently.