Amid the meteoric rise of the global freelance economy, entrepreneurs, creative nomads and independent teams are becoming a large majority of today’s workforce. As this new model for work develops, establishing productive working systems between contractors, businesses and talent becomes a key component to success.
For many businesses, managing the dynamics of an already dynamic ecosystem can seem arduous. The first place to start when designing a working system within such a dynamic environment is to address data points that must be verified as true for a working system to successfully function. These data points include worker’s level of competence, trust and likelihood of completing a job.
The startup Alehub may have a solution. Launched in 2017, Alehub is a blockchain-based digital platform that assists businesses in identifying and approving contract partners.
Alehub is the brainwork of a highly qualified team of project managers and entrepreneurs working in conjunction with the Russian research university ITMO, one of the leading IT universities in the world. Alehub has also partnered with Serokell, the former developers of the cryptocurrency project Cardano, to develop the minimum viable product (MVP) version and begin their technical research development thesis, also referred to as a yellow paper.
Alehub envisions that their platform can bring a newer and brighter future to human resources. The platform assists organizations with managing talent, assessing skills and formalizing contract agreements. The platform will also help facilitate reservations, payments, compensation and profit-sharing transactions.
Each of these functions uses multilateral smart contracts on the Alehub network. By using smart contracts through Alehub, organizations can assure greater safety and reliability and reduce costs associated with outsourcing professionals. With the inherent ability within smart contracts to automatically execute contracts, the project structure now exists that allows for the adjustment of business arrangement across the workflow continuum in real time.
Leapfrogging Prevailing Models
While similar freelance marketplace hubs like Upwork, 99designs and TaskRabbit currently exist, none are equipped to effectively address the need for legally binding contracts and remote labor control for freelancers worldwide.
“We see our labor exchange as one that’s heavily involved in the relationship between customers and executors, providing them with all necessary tools for managing the details of work performed,” said Mikhail Gromyko, CEO of Alehub.
“At the same time, the rights and fulfillment of duties of all parties to the relationship are adhered to and guaranteed by the automatic execution of multilateral smart contracts.”
Alehub looks to attract demand from both the traditional and cryptocurrency economies through a new ecosystem that Alehub is calling the “composite economy.” The composite economy is designed to protect users from harmful actions by business partners during the execution of orders. As a result, AML and KYC protocols have been baked into the system as a due diligence measure.
Tokenizing HR
Alehub’s featured security-token is ALE. ALE is the equivalent to a single share in the new economic system. The token will be used to pay interest as well as for casting a vote during strategic decision-making where the community is involved.
ALE’s liquidity is ensured in a manner similar to that of cryptocurrencies. As the currency for the platform, it allows for the payment of services of contracting participants without being tethered to a specific fiat currency. The fact that these transactions are situated on the blockchain makes tax authority oversights a relatively easy task. Additionally, participants are protected against currency fluctuations on any fiat currency exchange.
To assure liquidity, the ALE protocol is being mirrored on the Ethereum platform, until stocks are ready to list tokens as their own protocols.
It should be noted that this system is compliant with the laws in myriad countries. Also, mining in Alehub is not anonymous, and miners are subject to mandatory verification procedures.
The Alehub team believes they are well on their way to revolutionizing the freelance industry. Their minimum viable product (MVP) is ready and can be downloaded from their website. Additionally, the release version is under development and soon will be added to GitHub.
“In order to make our platform more useful, we are now partnering with other business projects,” said Mikhail Gromyko. “By the beginning of 2020, we are planning to have our platform completely developed and published.”