The global freelancing economy has benefited millions around the world. It ignited a fire for self-employment among many individuals. Many have realized the benefits of freelancing which include freedom of choosing their projects and the happiness of being their boss. However, freelancing has its share of issues that need to be tackled.

The Global Rise of Freelance Economy

A major reason behind the rise of freelancing for the last few years is the phenomenal growth of a handful of large global freelance marketplaces along with the increase in usage of social media and online payment platforms. These freelancing platforms host a large number of both clients and freelancers. 

Freelancers have been able to sign up on these platforms and earn a good amount of money for themselves. On the other hand, clients have been able to access a higher number of skilled people to get their work done. Doesn’t it look like a win-win situation for both? It sure does, but there is a dark side to it as well and that’s where decentralized sharing economy comes in.

Snake in The Paradise of Current Global Sharing & Freelance Economy

Let’s explore some of the top-most issues that have been contributed by large freelance platforms.

#1. The large freelance marketplaces usually charge an exorbitant fee from the freelancers. This fee share that is deducted from the amount of money made by the freelancers is a considerable sum. It usually ranges between 10% to 20% of the entire sum. Even clients are not immune from this as they too have to pay more to access highly-skilled freelancers on these freelance aggregator platforms. 

#2. Almost all freelancing platforms mandate that there should be no outside client-freelancer relationship and all communications must only happen on the platform. It limits both the freelancers and clients from having any discussion outside the platform. This is rather an extreme form of control that these large freelancing platforms hold over freelancers and clients. However, this is not the only one of such extreme rules as few more rules apply to both the freelancers and the clients. 

#3. There’s no common profile sharing mechanism available between major platforms. It means that whenever a user registers on a new service, they have to start from scratch. This is a disadvantage as the users cannot leverage the goodwill that they have earned from other major platforms.

#4. The issue concerning data storage is common across almost all centralized companies and the large companies that power both the freelance and sharing economies are not immune to them. These companies store sensitive user data and store them in one place and it is common knowledge that centralized data storage is more likely to get hacked or being misused.

Will Decentralized Sharing Economy Save The Day?

The decentralized sharing economy will free the freelancing world from these shackles that are withholding the global freelance market from realizing it’s true potential. It’s about time for the freelance economy to leverage decentralization to keep growing.

There’s a popular saying and it goes as “The bigger the challenge, the bigger the opportunity for growth.” Well, this still stands true as many startups have taken matters in their own hands to solve some of the biggest issues that the industries around the world are facing. The same thing has happened with the freelancing and sharing economy as well. Many startups have taken it upon themselves to get the global freelance and sharing economy freed from the “shackles” it faces because of the dominance of a handful of companies.

New-age technologies like blockchain have proved to be the haven for startups that are looking to solve the myriad of challenges that many industries are facing today. Today, blockchain technology startups are creating solutions that will help the freelance and sharing economy move towards decentralization. 

An Ideal Sharing Economy 

Many blockchain companies have taken upon themselves to find solutions to the problems that the freelancing and sharing community is facing. Some have built a freelancing platform around a major cryptocurrency, whereas some companies like TimeCoinProtocol have built an interconnected and sharing economy-based ecosystem. It may very well become a core part of the sharing economy just like EOS & ETH are the core part of the Decentralized Finance sector.

Imagine a world that is interconnected with opportunities abound for people. They can choose to work whenever they want and wherever they want. The fruits of their hard work go to the worker rather than any third-party. In this ideal world, anyone can easily create sharing economy-based services and compete on equal terms. 

A sophisticated and robust reward system is a must for ensuring that the active contributors within the ecosystem are rewarded. An ideal sharing economy-based ecosystem would ensure that each and every user within the ecosystem will be rewarded with a number of tokens proportionate to the work that they did. This is exactly what TimeCoinProtocol has implemented. 

Any third party can launch its decentralized application using the EOS-based TimeCoinProtocol and join the sharing ecosystem. These third-party DApps will allow their users to trade a variety of goods and services. The DApp providers, DApp users, and the contributors will run the protocol autonomously and they would be rewarded with TimeCoin tokens for it. It is clear that we can expect great things from today’s blockchain startups like TimeCoinProtocol, Ethereum-based Origin Protocol, and many more that are working towards the development of a decentralized sharing economy. These companies are leading from the front to make this ideal sharing economy a reality.

There are no worries about competing against the giants who can easily stifle the smaller players in the industry in a decentralized sharing economy. This ideal sharing economy can also bring a huge change in a variety of industries that include real estate, data storage, freelancing, and many more. 

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

It proves that almost all the challenges that the global industries are facing can be solved. However, it requires a startup or an entrepreneur that is willing to revolutionize a sector and a game-changing technology of the likes of blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and many more, along with lots and lots of hard work and perseverance. 

There’s nothing wrong in saying that the game has just begun, as the decentralized sharing and freelance economies are taking their baby steps now. We will soon see them become a giant on their own as it is something that is bound to happen. It will help unbreak the freelancing of today.