How Digital Freelancers Can Benefit From Blockchain Technology

Despite the popularity of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, most are not familiar with the underlying technology that has allowed disruptive concepts to emerge and flourish.

Blockchain, while not a terribly sexy topic for most, is likely to be one of the most impactful technologies our society has bubbling beneath the mainstream.

Most mainstream media outlets tend to steer away from widely covering the blockchain because concepts and applications of technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D printers, and autonomous motor vehicles are akin to seductive sci-fi stories. Stories that invoke elements of fantasy often drive more clicks.

Blockchain technology, however, is what lies at the heart of Bitcoin and various other digital currencies and is being investigated daily by cryptocurrency news sites all over. Blockchain, has the power to revolutionize the way people work and transfer funds from one party to another, among a myriad of other applications.

What is Blockchain and What Does It Do?

In layman’s terms, a blockchain, “. . . is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the collusion of the network.”

Under the current paradigm, if someone wants to send another person money, a third party (like a bank) is needed to verify and confirm the exchange. Using a blockchain, however, the third party becomes obsolete as there is an indelible ledger stored across a string of “blocks.”

Individuals and organizations can leverage this technology to exchange digital assets in a frictionless manner which enables instantaneous transactions, implements smart contracts which are stored and verified electronically, and stores an assortment of digital records.

Image Credit: DepositPhotos

Why Does Blockchain Technology Matter?

In today’s political and social climate, trust has been slowly broken and dissolved across all categories: Religious institutions, corporate entities, political leaders, and even fellow citizens.

Blockchains help to begin re-establishing faith among users as it’s practical applications ensures dependable storage and exchange of information, assets, intellectual properties, and other vital resources. More importantly, it builds this trust within a communal setting.

As Vitalik Buterin, the founder of the blockchain platform Ethereum, puts it:

“Blockchains automate away at the centre. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer.”

What this means is that blockchains could very well be the technology that levels the economic playing field and effectively removes the middleman, providing greater rewards to creatives and achievers.

Taking some time to ponder this appealing notion reveals some clear benefits and advantages to freelance workers who reside at the center of a technological shift that could push the gig economy into a new era.

CanYa Brings Cryptocurrencies to the Digital Freelancing Masses

Given that blockchain technology presents the potential of cutting-out middlemen and creating incorruptible contracts, freelancers across the globe could stand to see increased improvements in their autonomy and self-sufficiency.

Today, freelancers and independent contractors must compete with a myriad of unnecessary problems like fake reviews on freelancing websites, getting reliably paid for their efforts, and heavily relying on centralized platforms like Upwork, TaskRabbit, and various others.

For instance, most freelance marketplaces charge exorbitant fees that end up diminishing the value freelancers receive from their efforts. This can be clearly seen across the industry as platforms like Upwork charge freelances 20% and employers are charged another 3%. Freelancer.com follows suit, charging 10%, with a 3% client fee. Additionally, most of these sites also charge a hefty withdrawal fee.

This is part of the issue with centralization as freelancers lose a significant portion of their earnings to platform owners and operators; a natural byproduct of such systems.

Blockchain-based marketplaces like CanYa, however, disperse the control amongst users in accordance with the blockchain framework. This means that users are typically changed far less in fees and often face no withdrawal or transfer fees whatsoever.

Image Credit: CanYa.io

Furthermore, since CanYa is a peer-to-peer service platform, fake reviews are no longer an issue either as use of the blockchain ensures that every transaction and entry on the platform is visible to all users, making falsities and manipulation a near impossibility.

Through this paradigm, all of CanYa’s users and providers are reviewed, verified, and rated by the its self-governing global userbase. This ends up creating a safe, secure, and honest meritocracy in which the best CanYa has to offer rises to the top, while those with less favorable reviews sink to the bottom.

So, no matter if you need a simple household task done locally or a complex corporate project managed internationally, you can ensure that you are hiring the most skilled and appropriate person for the gig.

It is this level of transparency that allows trust to reemerge within blockchain communities and platforms.

As for the concern of reliable payment to independents, freelance marketplaces built upon blockchain technology allow users and providers to work in safe and fair environments as they implement the tenants of a trustless payment system; meaning that funds are held in escrow to guard against currency fluctuations. Even if such fluctuations do occur, providers will still be paid the contracted amount.

What this all points to is a more prosperous and integrity-based system in which freelancers can prosper alongside platform creators as the freedom, safety, and clarity found on these sites would serve users and therefore attract even more independents.

The time has come for the self-employed to help develop a truly self-sufficient gig economy in which people can flourish based upon merit alone.

Start listing your services on freelance marketplaces that employ blockchain technology and help to revolutionize the future of freelance opportunity.