A new startup called Braintrust wants to change the way freelance talent and respective clients find each other through a community-run platform. The project will feature its own governance token.
The core premise of the platform is to remove middlemen from the process of hiring highly skilled talent for contract and freelance work, primarily in the IT industry.
Business and employees across all industries are realizing that it's possible to innovate from anywhere 🌎 We are Braintrust —and this is the way work should work. #Talentrevolution #distributedteams pic.twitter.com/8cM6xcMKY9 — Braintrust (@usebraintrust) June 30, 2020
However, Braintrust will not force users into a proprietary token for payments but create a community-run platform.
CEO, Adam Jackson believes that existing freelancer aggregation platforms, like Upwork and Fiverr, suffers from misaligned incentives between the owners of the platform and its users:
“Their job is to connect buyer and seller, company and talent, and then facilitate the transaction. And then take as large a fee as possible as a percentage of that transaction.”
The fees incurred by freelancers are usually about 20% of the total billed amount. This is the norm for any “two-sided market” born on the internet.
The firms usually gets away with large fees due to the value they add by creating a trusted environment and providing escrow services.
But that aspect can be recreated by a peer-to-peer vetting system. Users will be incentivized to validate new clients and freelancers as additions to the community.
Building off the Gig Economy, the User-Controlled Economy enables users of talent networks — freelancers and organizations — to connect and collaborate using decentralized technology such as blockchain. Learn about the #TalentRevolution https://t.co/InbHyAITxp #usercontrolled pic.twitter.com/XnJr6uSMci — Braintrust (@usebraintrust) June 29, 2020
The system is not a decentralized autonomous organization though, and a non-profit foundation will take care of some aspects of the system, like accepting money.
Jackson added:
“But that’s just one of many companies or people or entities that are helping build this thing”
However, Braintrust is not completely feeless, as the foundation will collect 10% of each transaction from clients. But the exact rates are subjected to change by community governance.
Payments on Braintrust will be conducted through traditional fiat USD, though crypto-based payment will also be supported.
The Braintrust token, or BTRUST, only has governance functionality. Its holders are able to vote on key aspects of the platform:
what kind of clients and talent to accept
what features to develop
how much the platform should charge
Jackson hopes that the new model will promote a vibrant talent network that will be actively interested in improving the ecosystem:
“This new model I’m describing actually isn’t possible without a token. The token, [and] the blockchain facilitates replacing the middleman.”
Jackson says that Robert Leshner, the founder, and CEO of Compound, is an advisor and investor in the project. Furthermore, Braintrust is reusing a fork of Compound’s governance code to power its own systems.
The platform’s users will earn the token by contributing to it, for example by evaluating new candidates. However, unlike some DeFi protocols though, the platform’s revenue will not be distributed to token holders.
Braintrust’s concept represents an interesting use of crypto-native systems to solve real world problems.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Unsplash
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