The gig economy is growing at a record pace. BLS data shows that roughly 34% of the workforce is composed of independent contractors. The number of freelancers is expected to rise at least 60% between 2017 and 2020. Both freelancers and the brands depending on them are grappling with a variety of challenges. Blockchain is key to addressing some of the most pressing problems.
How can blockchain benefit the gig economy?
Blockchain was originally developed to process and authenticate digital currency transactions. It was the official ledger for bitcoin.
The same technology can be repurposed for managing online contracts. Here are some of the key advantages.
Verifying freelancer work
Brands must work with reputable freelancers to meet their business goals. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to verify the authenticity of their work and establish their reputation.
Blockchain provides a cutting-edge solution for both parties. Blockchain ledger systems enable freelancers to create unique online identities that nobody else has the cryptographic keys to access. This allows them to verify their identity and ownership of their content to protect against impersonators.
Protection and transfer of intellectual property rights
The Internet has complicated the enforcement of intellectual property rights. In the United States, United Kingdom and many other developed countries, originators of written content aren’t required to register their IP with a government registry. They secure their copyrights as soon as their content is published.
However, verifying the original creator of the content over the Internet is very difficult. Timestamps can’t be easily accessed, unless the content has been saved by a trusted Internet archiver.
Blockchain offers an ideal solution. Content developers can register their work with a blockchain registry such as Bernstein, so there will be no dispute over ownership of the IP rights.
Cost-effective alternatives to escrow
Traditional gig economy platforms charge fees ranging from 10 to 15% of every contract. These fees have raised the cost structure of the gig economy.
Blockchain provides a much more cost-effective alternative. Freelancers and clients can enter into contracts with clearly defined payment terms. The blockchain can serve as an intermediary between the two and ensure transactions are processed as soon as the work is completed to the client’s satisfaction. Transaction fees via the blockchain may be as low as 0.5%. This enables freelancers to lower their rates and split the savings between them and their clients.
New work agreement platforms like Grain.io are being built on blockchain to process work agreement securely and at a much lower cost. Former Senior Director at Microsoft and Grain CEO Onno Hektor explains, “By moving work agreements to a blockchain solution, we can substantially lower overhead costs and make both sides of the transaction better off. Transferring money to workers becomes cheap by eliminating unfavorable exchange rates or high transaction costs.”
Toolkit for blockchain developers offering gig economy solutions
Blockchain developers can take advantage of a number of development tools to create cutting-edge solutions for the gig economy. A few years ago, their only option was to use bitcoin to create daaps. Since bitcoin is intended for peer to peer transactions, it isn’t adequate solution for daap development.
Here are some alternative watching development tools.
Mist
Mist is a blockchain solution that blockchain developers use to handle a wide range of applications. It is commonly used for awarding and regulating smart contracts, which makes it an ideal solution for gig economy platforms.
Etherium blockchain developers that haven’t used Mist before can find it on Github. This environment has a wide array of scripts, modules and other resources they need to begin coding.
BaaS
BaaS is an Etherium blockchain developer platform created by Microsoft Azure. All content hosted and shared through BaaS is encrypted.
BaaS has a permanent digital transaction trail. If developers need to correct any transactions, a rectifying transaction must be completed. Transactions cannot be modified or deleted.
One of the key benefits of the BaaS environment is its machine learning capabilities. The environment is interconnected with other developers, so it becomes more streamlined as the transaction ledger scales. Replication of transactions also continually enhances the authenticity of the BaaS environment.
Blockchain Testnet
Blockchain testnets simulate the environment of the actual blockchain, while keeping it sanitized from test transactions. There are a number of different Blockchain testnets, but Blockcypher is one of the most popular.
With Blockcypher, blockchain developers begin the simulation the blockchain environment by creating a push transaction. This is accomplished by selecting the transaction type and entering the hexadecimal code associated with it. After the simulated transaction is created, can be publicly broadcast to the blockchain testing environment.
The process can be reversed to decode blockchain transactions as well. http://bit.ly/2Fc2xoc #SAP #SAPCloud #AI
