Zoom, the intelligence services and project management outsourcing platform, is working on using blockchain technology to offer freelancers and clients an improved and different online marketplace.
So how can blockchain help? Below we list some of the key benefits of using blockchain technology.
Security
Zoom will use an ID system that uses a consensus algorithm to confirm the identities of potential employees and employers by verifying and authenticating private data.
Work histories and performance measures for users will be linked to these secure IDs to limit fraud on the platform.
Organisation
The transparency of the blockchain will be used to create a system that supports multi-stage and multi-stakeholder projects, allowing individuals to post projects and request available freelancers. ‘Contract Trees’ will be used to organise freelancers into a working structure to complete complex projects. There may be several freelancers, all with their own deadline, working on individual deliverables or stages of the same project.
Payment
“As it stands right now, the systems in place for payment are slow and still rely on a third party to be the authority during a business transaction, but those third parties have very limited jurisdiction,” founder and CEO Plamen Nedyalkov told Venture Beat.
“We are using blockchain to handle the escrow and transaction services of the platform, equalizing the power differential between client and contractor because the payment is held in the hand of neither.”
Cryptocurrency
Zoom’s utility token is integrated into the platform and products and services will be cheaper for users paying with these tokens. ETH cryptocurrency can also be used to make purchases and access Zoom’s features, but costs are higher. Use of the tokens makes users eligible for discounts, and contractors may also be paid commissions in Zoom Tokens for using partner products in projects.
Smart contracts
Smart contracts allow users to exchange or pay for money or services directly, without the use of an intermediary. This is because the ‘contract’ is, in effect, converted to computer code and then stored and supervised by the computer network running the blockchain. This should make transactions easier and quicker on the platform.
Zoom’s whitepaper explains that not only will specific terms (contract length, rate of pay, milestones for project completion, etc.) be definable inside the smart contract itself, but the allocation and release of funds will be controlled and automated as well.
Conflict resolution
A ‘tribunal’ system will be used whereby a jury-like structure will review any reported conflicts and resolve the resulting issues.
The future of the freelance marketplace?
Zoom’s whitepaper explains that within its platform, channels of communication will include personal chats (text, audio and video) with scope to expand into VR conferencing or screen casting embedded systems, where intellectual property rights are enforced with encrypted digital signatures through blockchain technology.
Zoom is not fully operational yet, but companies and partners will be onboarded very soon, followed by freelancers.
“Short-term we are continuing development and getting users up and running, and then we have some very cool things we can do with the data from that later,” Nedyalkov told Venture Beat, “Currently we are also opening up for investors.”
Zoom’s upcoming ICO (Initial Coin Offering) for the Zoom Token will begin in late October or early November and will have a hard cap of $24.5 million.
Have you ventured onto blockchain freelancing platforms yet? Let us know about your experiences of them.
