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In the past year, cryptocurrencies have made a huge leap forward. People who had never even heard of digital currencies are investing thousands of their own cash into the system – and receiving huge rewards in return. The market cap on Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, is currently a massive $134B.
An opportunity that was once limited to savvy investors and tech buffs has now been made available to the entire world – and more people are jumping on the bandwagon every day. As of November 2017, Coinbase has surpassed 12.4 million users.
But the potential of cryptocurrencies is far bigger than just making quick investments and watching as the numbers rise. Many people are still completely oblivious to the full potential of the technology that makes all of this possible: the blockchain.
The Lesser-Known Benefits of Blockchain
The blockchain can be thought of as the powering force behind cryptocurrencies. Essentially, it is a virtual spreadsheet that is duplicated across a huge network of computers known as ‘nodes’.
The information held across these nodes is updated regularly, and it is shared and completely transparent making it virtually impossible to make unauthorized changes.
At a glance, it sounds very technical, but the blockchain has many benefits that can benefit the wider population. One of its most exciting features is the potential to could completely transform the ‘gig economy’.
Freelancing is becoming more and more popular. By 2020, it is expected that up to 43% of the US workforce could be made up of freelancers.
Introducing cryptocurrencies to the gig marketplace for use by freelancers provides huge benefits for all involved. As cryptocurrencies can be used globally, they are first and foremost a great option for digital freelancers who are living in countries with volatile currencies.
They’re also a great option for freelancers who wish to engage internationally, but want to bypass the extortionate transaction fees they are often presented with, or for those who just want to fully digitize all of their transactions while still making themselves easy to do business with.
Using Cryptocurrencies to Pay for Services
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are a form of digital money. They are designed specially to make digital transactions easier, safer, and more convenient.
One company that is currently on the radar to revolutionize the way freelancers work is CanYa – an Ethereum-based peer-to-peer service platform designed to make global trading as simple as possible. It plans to go head-to-head with the current gig marketplace ‘giants’ like Upwork and Fiverr to provide a better alternative to the current options available for freelancers and clients.
It will allow users to search and book the best service providers both in their area and globally, and features free, adjustable quoting; instant payments; reviews; in-app calling, and an in-built referral system. The model is designed to bring attention to the most qualified freelancers, so those who are the most skilled will have the ability to get the most jobs, and therefore earn the most money for their work.
CanYa features its own ERC20 token – the CanYa Token (CAN). This is for use in CanYa’s hedged escrow contract which protects users from base price fluctuations. This is necessary due to the volatility of cryptocurrency markets.
For example, if a job takes 4 weeks to complete, both the user and provider would be constantly concerned that the value of tokens would change before the contract was finished. CanYa tokens completely remove this risk due via the hedged escrow contract.
For more information on CanYa, you can take a look at their white paper.
The Future of CanYa
CanYa’s ICO is set to run from November 26th to December 26th. The platform has already been launched in Australia, and a working version is available.
When the ICO is complete, CanYa plans to allow users to use all the popular blockchain coins – in addition to the CanYa coin.
Machine learning for job bookings, a chat bot, and multi-language features will also be introduced to improve the overall user experience.
If you’re not involved in freelancing and have no desire to become a part of the gig economy, you can still get involved by investing in CanYa, or even becoming a part of their referral program where you can receive rewards in exchange for helping to build the community.