Blockchain in the Freelancer Market
What is the influence of blockchain on the freelancer market?
Freelancing is a fast growing and ever-increasing industry where people from any field offer their services not needing to rely to work as an employee to make a living. Following the big boom of the internet, many online freelancing platforms were created, such as Upwork with over 10 million registered users and millions of jobs posted annually worth over a billion dollars. These platforms not only offer the opportunity of doing freelance work but also smaller freelancing contracts and remote work.
According to Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork, “The younger part of the workforce is much more likely to be freelancing than the older part.”1
This so-called rise of the freelance market or gig-economy, installs expectations that a large part of the workforce in the future will be done by freelancers to reduce costs to the company and increase flexibility on the service-provider to work at their own comfort. It is also notable that it seems that freelancing is much more common among the younger generations, which could explain a potential rise in freelancing over the years. Projections show that by 2020 43% of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers.2
How will freelancing impact the rise of Blockchain Technology?
LinkedIn states that there are now 28 times as many people citing cryptocurrency skills on their profiles and 5.5 times as many people with bitcoin skills as there were in October 2013.3
After the rise of Blockchain Technology and the subsequent boom of this industry, the amount of freelancer jobs and the demand for blockchain professionals in the market has been growing exponentially. For every new blockchain project there are around 14 new positions on the job market. Bitcoin related jobs have increased nine-fold on LinkedIn in the financial section, and there are 28 times more profiles that use blockchain related titles as their talents or skills. On Upwork, blockchain is the fastest growing skill out of all the over 5000 skills on the platform. Although around 70% of the skills are still related to coding and blockchain development; there are also other services such as advisory or consultancy that are gaining ground.4
Freelancing jobs might also seem like a perfect fit for the blockchain industry, since many freelancers would work multiple projects for a limited amount of time. Many blockchain projects are categorized by having specific and time-limited tasks that need to be done. Take for example creating a smart contract, or other coding work, this can easily fit in as a freelancer project. Or extra support during certain stages of a blockchain company, freelancer temporary contracts fit in here very well.
The freelancing industry is an important part of the economy, Blockchain Technology seems to be the fastest growing market in the freelance industry and due to the nature of its projects, it seems like a perfect fit for freelancers looking to gain experience and complete multiple projects at once.
Blockchain and freelancing might then both have a major influence in the economy in the coming years.
1 Pofeldt, Elaine. “Freelancers Now Make Up 35% Of U.S. Workforce.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 31 Oct. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2016/10/06/new-survey-freelance-economy-shows-rapid-growth/.
2 “The Gig Economy: 2020 Freelance Workforce Predicted To Rise To 43%.” NASDAQ.com, Nasdaq, 14 June 2017, www.nasdaq.com/article/the-gig-economy-2020-freelance-workforce-predicted-to-rise-to-43-cm803297.
3 Mody, Seema. “As Cryptocurrencies Flourish, Employers Hunt for Workers with Blockchain Skills.” CNBC, CNBC, 12 Jan. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/01/12/as-cryptocurrencies-flourish-employers-hunt-for-workers-with-blockchain-skills.html.
4 Verhage, Julie. “Bitcoin Job Postings Are Surging on LinkedIn.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 1 Dec. 2017, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-01/bitcoin-job-postings-are-surging-on-linkedin-as-price-soars.
