MIcrowork.io is a platform built exclusively for freelancers. Freelancers form the backbone of many businesses across various domains. It is impractical for a company to hire someone for every task as it will increase the operating costs of the company by multiple folds. In order to avoid that, businesses look for freelancers who can finish the task for them for a fixed fee. Thanks to the internet and electronic nature of many tasks, it can be done from anywhere in the world. All one needs is a decent internet connection and a computer in addition to the required skill sets.
There are multiple sites like Freelancer, Elance and Odesk that provides employers with access to freelance talent pool. If you go to any of these platforms you will find plenty of freelancers having various skill sets with varying experience. The employers are free to choose the candidate whom they think can do the job for them, and pay them through the platform for their services. Even though these platforms provide access to a huge talent pool while simultaneously offering the freelancers with an opportunity to utilize their skills and make money, they have few drawbacks. Most of these platforms are developed by keeping the employer in mind and on many instances, the freelancers are left short-changed by the employers, either by not paying the fee in full as promised or by rising a dispute that the job wasn’t done to prevent paying them.
In order to ensure that the freelancers aren’t taken advantage of, there is a need for smart contracts and minimum wages. Microwork.io is one such company that provides both the features on their new platform. Microwork.io is a micro-tasks platform that uses Blockchain technology to create and enforce smart contracts. The platform can be defined as an open source version of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The platform apart from providing minimum wage and smart contract features, also offers arbitration and dispute resolution services.
Unlike other freelance work platforms, Microwork.io is built with a freelancer’s perspective in mind. According to Andy Gough, the founder and CEO – the platform harnesses the power of Blockchain technology to prevent workers from being abuses and exploited. The platform is built after seeking inputs from workers, to determine the best practices and processes needed to streamline the freelancing industry.
The smart contracts on Microwork.io allows both the employer and employee to finalize the contracts without any involvement by a third-party. The status of certain tasks can also be checked and verified on a smart contract oracle system. For those jobs that can’t be completely verified on the smart contract system will be subjected to an arbitration system in case of disputes. The platform also allows payments for tasks in bitcoins.
Microwork.io is currently using a customized Thelonious Blockchain for its reputation management system while the smart contracts are processed using Codius platform developed by Ripple Labs. By approaching the freelancing market from the freelancers’ perspective, the company has a huge potential to standardize the whole process. It will also push freelancing into mainstream.