Categories
Crypto Guides

Usage Of Cryptocurrency In The Gig Economy

Introduction

The global workspace has considerably been changing and evolving. For example, the replacement of automated machines has helped corporations reduce costs on jobs. Back then, people had the idea of staying and working in a single workplace. But, in the younger generation, the idea of moving from one job to another is normal.

Then comes the gig economy that is growing at a great pace. In fact, it has even become the main source of income for many people across the world. And all of this has been made possible by the internet’s feature to connect remote workers with their employers.

In 2018, over one-third of the Europeans and Americans are involved in the gig economy. Presently, the numbers have almost risen to 50%, which has led to pressure in the existing economy to keep up with this rise.

Payment System in Gig Economy

In freelancing, the payment services are quite different from the traditional system. Most freelancers get paid through online digital payment services like PayPal. Before this, people relied on paychecks. But the launch of PayPal has made a great impact on the payment system, especially in the freelancing space.

However, there is a downside to it. For making payments via PayPal, the fee is around 4%, which certainly unreliable for continual large-scale use. Many digital payment providers like PayPal are available, but their charges are still not reasonable for freelancers.

But well, it doesn’t end there. This is when blockchain and cryptocurrencies make their way into the gig economy. Let’s find out how.

Cryptocurrency in Gig Economy

Cryptocurrencies can significantly affect the transaction system in the freelancing field. There are two features cryptocurrencies have to offer that could help ease the payments.

They are - Extremely less transaction fee & Rapid transaction confirmation

These two features, happening to be the most important factors in a transaction, is unavailable in services in PayPal. Also, there has been a rise in blockchain-based platforms for searching and positing freelancing jobs, which has caused a challenge for the existing farm websites.

Also, the growth of the gig economy across the world in recent years has led to Upwork stop accepting registrations for freelancer writers.

How is the world developing?

The development of the gig economy has been slow, yet steady in the Western countries. But it has become a regular job in other emerging countries around the globe. For instance, in 2015, Africans created over 3.1 million new jobs. And in the same year, 12 million youngsters entered the workspace. Hence, these numbers evidently explain the growing gig economy embedded with crypto services in Africa.

In some countries, cryptocurrencies have seen to be more stable than the standard fiat currencies. Though they have regular volatility of 10-15%, it is still a better option than unstable fiat currency as they are prone to hyperinflation.

Conclusion

Many thought the gig economy is something that could take a while to enter, but it is here before than expected. With its steady rise, blockchain and cryptocurrency have increased its rate of rising. Also, this could also lead to norms like PayPal and Upwork to adapt and reduce their existing cost on transactions.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Four Best Use Cases Of Blockchain For Governments

Introduction

Blockchain platforms have proven themselves to be not only a platform to create and exchange cryptocurrencies but much more than that. Further, these platforms are not limited to only financial workspaces, but much more can be achieved. In this article, let us see the applications of blockchain in government institutions.

Budgetary Use Cases

I am starting the article with budgetary use case as this is very close to my heart to achieve a corruption-free world. Every government around the world has its budgetary sessions for every financial year. As per the allocations, the amount is released to each department as required. Based on the amount announced for the department, they have to design a blueprint on how the funds will be utilized for the year and all the minor details like contractors, vendors; payments should be finalized to incorporate the same in a smart contract.

Once all the details are completed, the smart contract can be launched. Everyone will be paid accordingly when predefined conditions are met. Thus, achieving a corruption field. Once a smart contract is deployed, it would be difficult to change any conditions. Hence this is a bit complex to implement, but the stakes are quite high since we envision a corruption-free world.

Digitizing The Documents

Every government has many departments often divided between state and central. Most of the governments are digitizing the records as of now. It will be an excellent use case of blockchain if the digitized materials are stored in the blockchain. Often the documents should be shared amongst immigration authorities, defense, homeland security, many more departments. A lot of paperwork and permissions should be sorted out to get adequate information, which is very time-consuming.

If all these documents are stored in the blockchain, it would be effortless to transfer the materials. The document should be shared using the only blockchain. Every view of the document from other departments can be stored as transactions; transaction approvals can be saved as different transactions. Thus, everything will be recorded. This is very useful to avoid any loss or tampering of the documents.

Voting

Voting is crucial for any democratic country to run smoothly at predefined intervals of time. There are huge limitations when it comes to conducting voting securely without any fraud. If blockchain is implemented for voting, that can be changed. Each vote can be converted into a smart contract and display the transactions publicly for everyone to view. Moscow has its voting platform on Ethereum.

They have implemented blockchain voting for urban and landscape design. Half a million people have voted their ideas for public transport, plantations, and materials to be used. Though the platform isn’t used for political polls, the success is a considerable achievement to develop blockchain for voting a full-fledged manner.

Identity

Almost all the governments around the globe have some unique identification numbers for their citizens. Social security numbers for Americans and Aadhar numbers for Indians are some examples. These identification numbers contain the most sensitive information of the citizens of a country like tax returns, income details, retina scans, fingerprints, and so much more.

If these details are hacked somehow, it would be a massive setback for the governments as it is a concern of people’s security. Hence, it is essential to safeguard such information in blockchain so that every view by different authorities can be permissioned and stored using transactions.

These are some of the use cases in government institutions where blockchain will be beneficial to enhance the efficiency and working of the government.

Categories
Crypto Guides

Use Cases Of Blockchain Technology – Part 2 (Food & Diamond Industries)

In our previous guide, we have discussed some of the real-life applications of Blockchain technology. Some of the critical use cases of this technology that we have discussed in the Part-1 article include Asset Tokenization, Supply Chain Management, Energy Market & Healthcare. In this guide, let’s talk Food Safety & Diamond Industry, where the blockchain technology is being used extensively to solve more significant problems.

🥗 Food Safety 

Do you know where your food is coming from? Any idea on where it is being produced or who produced it? Have you seen some of those viral videos where artificial cabbages are made out of some chemicals in China? Or many scams in third world countries where various food items such as cooking oil, eggs, milk, etc. are mixed with dangerous chemicals to extend the storage capacity of perishable items? Yes. All of these are true. Food companies commit some of the biggest sins on this planet.

Hence it is essential to know what kind of food you eat and how pure it is. The supply chain of food items is always complicated and opaque. There is no transparency regarding where the food is produced, packed, re-packed, etc. So there are high chances of fraud happening with the tracking technology we have as of today. But with blockchain tech, users can verify the history of the food items very quickly.

Various other details such as batch numbers, location of production, storage temperatures, where the item is packed, its expiry dates can easily be recorded as well. Since the entire blockchain is transparent, anyone who has access to the respective blockchain can gain access to all those details. If executed correctly, the efficiency of the food supply chain can easily be improved. IBM Food Trust is one such blockchain that deals with most of the problems we discussed above.

💎 Diamond Industry

We all know how precious the diamonds are. They are incredibly scarce, and that makes them one of the most luxurious jewelry items. But the Diamond industry is currently facing a lot of problems such as insurance fraud, smuggled diamonds, etc. Diamond companies are following different complex procedures to make sure quality control is in place. Also, insurance companies are taking various measures to make sure the fraud doesn’t happen. However, these measures and procedures consume a lot of time and money. But what if we say there is one simple solution to all these problems?

Yes, the solution is Blockchain technology. Using this tech, provenance tracking can be done for the diamonds at every stage of its production, like from where they are mined to the retail stores. Typically, a serial number is given to the diamonds, which capture close to 40 properties of it. This serial number is embedded on the diamond while cutting & polishing it. All of these parameters related to a particular diamond can be stored in a blockchain. There’s a company known as EverLedger, who does exactly this. Essentially they convert the physical asset into a digital asset by taking all of its information for provenance tracking. As of today, they are tracking over 2 million diamonds, and by these services, users are sure that they have made the right purchase.

Some of the biggest problems in the world like terrorism can be tackled if companies like EverLedger prevail in the market. Blood diamonds are one of the largest ways of funding terrorist groups around the globe. Illegal mining of diamonds can completely be eliminated with the help of blockchain technology.

These are just two of the many industries where blockchain is being used for improving the existing conditions. Some of the other major industries include Real-Estate, Intellectual Property, e-governance, etc. We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Cheers!