Telos launches new gig economy platform on the blockchain

Blockchain developers can't be accused of failing to keep up with the times.

The unprecedented shake-up in the world's labor markets during the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the underemployment trends of recent decades.

Even ahead of the current crisis, the global gig economy was predicted to reach $455 billion by 2023, according to a 2019 Mastercard study, which urged entrepreneurs to capitalize on the "Opportunity." The outcome of recent legal challenges to this employment model still seems uncertain.

Against this backdrop, Telos is launching a new gig economy platform called TelosTask, applying blockchain technology to familiar models such as PeoplePerHour and Upwork.

Built on the Telos blockchain, and created by the MydAppr team, the new peer-to-peer platform will directly connect "Task givers" to "Task takers," or gig workers, and enable them to coordinate the completion of "Micro-" and "Macro-gigs."

Telos envisions the new platform will be used by gig workers across a wide range of sectors, from social media and writing assignments to graphic design and video production.

The platform uses an escrow system to automate secure payments.

"This is the real power of high-capacity blockchain. Now anyone can instantly create a free Telos account with an easy to remember name and log into it with no more hassle than logging into Twitter. It's a mass adoption-ready platform that's desperately needed right now as people try to figure out reliable new ways to earn income and perform business tasks in the post-COVID world."

Telos is not the only blockchain developer to seize on the unprecedented opportunity of the employment crisis of 2020.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, a product director at IOHK said she believed Cardano was, in a unique way, contributing to the gig economy through staking pools, which are developing into a form of business for their operators.