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.
Populous is a peer-to-peer invoice platform founded in 2017 at a high point in the blockchain and cryptocurrency craze. It makes use of blockchain's distributed ledger technology to provide a global trading platform for invoice financing. According to the Populous website, 'invoice finance is a form of funding that instantly unlocks the cash tied up in outstanding sales invoices. Business owners allow invoice buyers to buy invoices at a discounted rate in order to unlock their cash quicker. Once invoices are paid by the invoice debtor, the invoice buyer receives the amount previously agreed upon.' In order to offer funds to invoice sellers, Populous maintains a Liquidity Pool. This is tied in with the Populous cryptocurrency (PPT). An investor securitizes PPT by making an initial purchase. PPT is then held in escrow as collateral throughout the process. Transactions between invoice buyers and sellers take place with Pokens, exchanged for PPT and used as the currency for buying and selling invoices, either drawing from or contributing to the Liquidity Pool in the process. As a result of this built-in liquidity component, Populous at this point requires no transaction fees. In fact, the only fees levied are those associated with late payments. Populous invoice transactions can cover a huge array of industries, including many which are not typically available to traditional financing companies. The PPT tokens not released during the ICO were retained by the founding and development team. PPT can either be held or used as collateral to invest in Populous invoices. In exchange for collateralizing, you’re given an amount of Pokens based on a percentage of market value. Currently it’s the lesser of 50%, or a 30 day market average. These are automatically used to purchase an invoice. If the invoice is repaid, you receive both your PPT investment and Pokens profit.