Blue Whale Foundation, The Decentralized Ecosystem for the Self-Employed Blue Whale is set to rock the gig economy’s boat by building a decentralized ecosystem to allow freelancers and the self-employed to reap rewards and employment benefits from their contributions Against the backdrop of technological disruption and offshoring, the “gig/sharing economy” is burgeoning globally. Freelancers will make up a whopping 58% of the US workforce by 2027. Consequently, peer-to-peer booking platforms like AirBnB and Uber have seen a meteoric rise in demand accompanying these shifts in the job market. As the definition of work changes and evolves, the difficulties encountered by freelancers and part-time workers such as the lack of protection, and the insecurity of self-employment will only worsen. This not only affects the growing mass of freelancers, but also ruptures the social contract between workers and governments. Consumer protections have also weakened because of the murky legal relationship between freelancers and their host platforms. This simmering dissatisfaction has created popular backlash, as concerned governments in several countries such as France have begun to crack down on platforms like Uber and AirBnB. Despite these worrying trends, no workable remedy has been proposed - until now. The Blue Whale Foundation’s ICO is set to rock the boat of the gig/sharing economy by leveraging on blockchain as a service to provide freelancers with employment benefits such as paid-time-off, and retirement pensions traditionally available only to salaried employees.
Odyssey is primarily a decentralized sharing economy and peer-to-peer ecosystem, aiming to compete with and replace the likes of Airbnb and Uber. Odyssey dreams big - aiming to completely replace the concept of private ownership with an economy in which everything is shared and little is owned. It’s a long way from its goals, of course, but making peer-to-peer sharing more efficient with smart contracts is certainly a step in the right direction. The Odyssey website lists 9 advisors, with its primary two being Yi Shi, the CEO of Shanghai’s Avazu Holding, a leading global advertising platform, and Justin Sun, the backbone of the TRON cryptocurrency. The advisory team also includes Goh Jian Kai, founder and CEO of Southeast Asia’s cross-border payment solution system RateX. Odyssey has lofty goals, aiming to create a world where sharing is the norm and ownership or sharing monopoly doesn’t come in the way of people’s lives. A decentralized sharing platform where all service providers and customers are connected definitely sounds attractive. It’s a new currency, so it needs development to reach its goals. Of course, the fact that buying a large number of OCN tokens will not put a major dent in your pocket is a definite point in its favour.