An article featuring etch by Andy Spence who hosted our 'Blockchain and the distributed workforce' event at Rocketspace.
Blockchain Workforce Update #1
There is a lot going on in the blockchain workforce community at the moment.
Building decentralised career profiles to replace the tired old CV and résumé, work platforms to enable better matching and blockchain machines to pay contractors immediately with reduced remittance fees.
We are tracking and analysing over 70 start-ups in this space plus industry/enterprise initiatives.
If there is some interest, I will issue an update monthly.
From start-ups to scale-ups to larger industry players, key activities include :-
Fund raising — should we ICO, seduce VCs or both. And can we really pay for pizza with our 800 million tokens?
Designing, building and testing great products that customers need — what it’s all about folks.
Community building — servicing enormous communities on Telegram and Discord and wondering if the ‘Snark : Useful’ ratio is worth the pain.
Poaching talented individuals using dark hiring techniques from the old world.
Collaborate or Compete — there’s plenty of duplication across 70+ start-ups . Not all will succeed for the usual start-up reasons. So there are some strategic questions right now and the collaboration and partnership discussions have started…
Watch this space for events, updates and other initiatives.
Dock connects your profiles, reputations and networks into one shareable source using blockchain technology and has reached over 1 million registered users pretty quickly. The winners in the space will be those that can build critical mass quickly and this is a great start from Dock. One of the many stated aims of this community is to give back control of personal data to individuals, and Dock have launched Safe Scan which is a great step to allow users to check their online accounts for compromise. I ran this myself and it prompted me to delete accounts and set-up 2 step verification for others.
One of the pioneers of using blockchain solutions in HR, is Chronobank, led by Sergei Sergienko who I caught up with at Blockshow2018 in Berlin a few weeks ago. Their focus is all about building and testing their products which include a hiring platform (LaborX), a decentralized exchange (TimeX), a multi-signature wallet (ChronoMint), and a unique cryptocurrency pegged to labor hours (Labor-Hour Tokens).
Workchain, frees workers from their payroll shackles, or as they say, “The World works in real-time — payroll should too.” For this industry to gain traction we need people who know all about the products that HR customers need. The two founders of Workchain, Ivan Petrovic and Ryan Fyfe, both have an impressive background in building successful HR technology businesses, with WorkPuls and Humanity. Check out their impressive Workchain.io protocol.
Back in April, I spoke with a Professor of Education about the problem of educating kids in refugee camps, there over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon and half of these are children. They have no way of recording their learning in a way that can be used later. I drafted a blog article and put out a tweet to some of the world’s leading experts on blockchain and educational credentials, with some good feedback. Path submitted a paper to Unite Ideas, which is a United Nations division which try to solve real world problems with technology. Path won the award and are now working on a solution. A great example of using technology for good and the power of social networks — we will be following progress closely! Zinc is launched after R_Block as a rebrand. It looks like that ‘vitamin-shot’ has worked wonders, with Zinc announcing that their referencing dApp is now live for customer testing on the Ethereum Ropsten Testnet. have been busy and have been focussing on their product, after declaring July a ‘no leave month’ — me too! 😅They already have 30 job postings live. You can start by getting your tech skills validated here.Indorse
Etch, based in London, have launched a stable-coin, called ////Pier. In this article, Euros Evans explains why there is a need for a stable-coin in the world of work and how it will be used by the community. They have also put out a call for support from blockchain developers to economists, and those rare creatures 💎who understand both!
Moonlight , a blockchain-based talent matching platform are interesting in that to my knowledge they are the only work platform built on the NEO network.
Job.com are an example of an existing work platform that are converting to a blockchain platform, sharing the benefits of a peer-to-peer platform with the candidates.
Finally, we were beginning to wonder, but now the HR industry is getting very interested in the potential of Blockchain and HR, as illustrated with articles from NGA HR and Hays Quarterly, with input from myself.
It’s a wrap. Get in touch with me directly with any news for next months Blockchain Workforce update.
To find out more about the opportunities of Blockchain in HR and Work :-
Finally, we were beginning to wonder, but now the HR industry is getting very interested in the potential of Blockchain and HR, as illustrated with articles from NGA HR and Hays Quarterly, with input from myself.
It’s a wrap. Get in touch with me directly with any news for next months Blockchain Workforce update.
To find out more about the opportunities of Blockchain in HR and Work :-
· Bookmark the “Blockchain and the Distributed Workforce” hub on Medium, including the latest article, What Has The Internet Ever Done for HR?. I would like more articles from this community — let me know directly if you want to submit an article.
· Following the first ever Blockchain and HR event, in London, watch out for more events in Singapore, Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco. These will be great events with a mix of senior HR, payroll and recruitment professionals, journalists, academics, entrepreneurs and techies. I am still finalising dates and sponsorships, so get in touch if interested.
Find Andy on medium