Freelancing.
The dream, right? The ability to be your own boss, set your own timescales, sit around in your underwear until at least 12:00 noon (well, that last one might be a matter of personal preference!). No commute, no needless clocking in, no office politics – it’s no surprise that freelancing is of the fastest growing markets in the world, with the global workforce having exploded from 30 million to 55 million workers in the 10 years since 2008 (i.e. almost doubled).
However, it’s not all roses. I’ve been a freelance copy editor and writer since 2011, and it’s definitely had its highs and lows. Often the key part of the process – actually getting paid – can end up being the most stressful and difficult element. Back in the day, you had to forward your bank account or PayPal details to a client, and basically take it on faith that they would pay you on completion of the project. In many instances, back when I was a naïve 20-year-old, I ended up getting ripped off or paid only a partial sum, frequently several weeks late (which would play hell with my cash flow and ability to pay the rent!). Insisting on money up-front was often a sure-fire way to lose a client… so it was never easy. I felt like I was always chasing up at least one missing or late payment.
Then, with the advent of centralised freelancer platforms and websites – a whole set of different problems. Often these ecosystems have operated an honour or review system that ends up becoming a huge source of stress, thanks to the ever-present, catastrophic possibility of a client leaving an unfairly negative review. Instead of chasing up payments, I started feeling like I was desperately chasing up clients to leave me positive or at least fair reviews, or resolving disputes. Without a good rating on these sites, you are pretty much sunk. And let’s not get into the staggering fees involved (I’m looking at you Freelancer.com and Upwork.com).
I seriously wish there had been a low-fee freelancing platform with a fair dispute resolution system when I got started in this business, or even a few years ago, but there just wasn’t.
Enter Austrian start-up, Blocklancer, currently revolutionising the sector with their vision of a completely self-regulatory platform for finding jobs and getting projects done efficiently and fairly. Their solution: a Distributed Autonomous Job Marketplace (DAJ) leveraging the power of the immutable and wholly transparent thereum blockchain; a freelancing ecosystem where payment will never be in doubt, where disputes will be settled in a totally impartial and automated fashion and where freelancer accounts will never be at risk of unfair deletion by a centralised authority. It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? However, these guys are deadly serious about delivering the goods.
Here are some of Blocklancer’s key features:
A Unique ERC-20 Token – One of the key components of the ecosystem, and one of the aspects that makes Blocklancer unique, is the role of token holders. Investors who hold their Erc-20 Lancer tokens are automatically entitled to a certain percentage of Blocklancer’s revenue (in the form of job fees). In turn, these individuals perform a vital arbitration role in the ecosystem… which brings me on to the next point:
Dispute Resolution - rather than leaving the settlement of disputes up to the arbitrary authority of a centralised third party, Blocklancer will employ Token Holder Tribunals (THTs) that will instead leverage the power of the ‘wisdom of the crowd’, allowing thousands of token holders to arrive at an impartial and fair decision. In more complex or extreme cases, an expert tribunal would also be available to arbitrate.
Low Fees – Instead of the kind of exorbitant fees currently seen on the major freelancing portals (often in the region of 20%), Blocklancer charges a uniform rate of 3% per job to ensure that Freelancing remains a cost-effective and reliable way to earn a living.
Guaranteed Payment – Payment will be 100% guaranteed if milestones are hit, and if work is considered to be satisfactory – and, with Token Holder Tribunals in place to protect a fair outcome, freelancers who act in good faith are all but assured their fair pay out – which will be automatically withdrawn into the individual’s specified Ethereum wallet.
So there you have it, a transparent blockchain solution aimed at solving the payment problems, dispute issues and high fees plaguing the freelancing industry. And if these guys do manage to pull it off, the sky really is the limit. For example, Blocklancer calculated that, even if only 0.01 % of the Freelancer community were to adopt their platform, the amount of money in circulation on their platform would exceed $100 million.
So if you’ve been dying to stick it to your boss and start working under your own initiative, the future looks pretty exciting from here on out.
