Not much financial gratitude has been shown to productive, independent freelancers, adding to that challenge is the high commission fees intermediaries charge to assist freelancers.
A post recently published on Forbes by David Peterson, a developer and tech blogger cited a report from Deloitte that discovered that freelancers earn lower than their counterparts offering similar services at a full-time job.
He stated that independent freelancers have to constantly battle with issues such as job security and poor rewards for services.
The former U.S. Secretary of Labor, however, has a different view of the situation, he believes that the freelance workforce is growing rapidly and even predicts that 40 percent of workers in America will be independent contractors within the next few years. Leading freelance platforms like the Upwork and Freelancers Union reiterated the same message. In their joint report, they determined that most of the U.S. workforce will be engaged in the freelance work in the year 2027.
The narrative seems to be changing gradually as some blockchain startups that have seen the potential growth of the freelance market are trying to set up platforms that aim to pay freelancers more money for their services through the elimination of the high commission fees charged by intermediaries.
Independent freelancers have not had it easy in the game, they not only receive very little compensation for their work, but they also have to deal with the challenge of various regulations that reduce their compensation significantly but in several cases do not enable them to receive payment.
Peterson believes that these problems are decisive factors for freelancers to move to the blockchain-enabled system for not just payments but the management of their contracts.
Peterson stated in his post that a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based system offers simplicity and lets freelancers delve right into the world of freelancing to earn some great money.
Blue Whale, a DLT-powered freelance system is poised to solve the problem of sick pay and paid time off. When compared to full-time salaried positions, freelance workers usually do not get paid for their sick days. Blue Whale’s platform as reported enables freelancers to contribute to a reward bank; this initiative allows funds from the reward bank to offer financial support to Blue Whale’s members who might be unable to work on some days due to personal reasons.
Crypto Task, on the other hand, is poised to provide a decentralized freelancing market that will offer a unique dispute settlement system.
Peterson explained that the freelancer and client would put aside 10% of the value of their contract which will be paid to independent, randomly delegated reviewers. Then these reviewers will in turn vote in favor of one of the parties.
This unique system has no central body or decision maker, and reviewers votes are cryptographically signed. Then the voting results are disclosed only after all reviewers have submitted their votes. Also, reviewers are not in the know of each other’s votes.
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