With the dramatic rise of Bitcoin, and with its current valuation being close to US$ 8000, there have been a myriad of speculations on the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole.
Essentially, there are two sides to the argument with certain investors looking at Bitcoin as a means to gain early exposure to venture capital that could further rise in valuation. The second argument is that cryptocurrencies are a bubble that will inevitably burst due to the foundation upon which they exist. Major Banks have issued multiple warnings against exposure to Bitcoin due to its highly speculative nature and non-fiat characteristics, with the CEO of another adding; “from what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell Bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble.” Despite the pessimistic outlook, JP Morgan is investing a lot of capital in blockchain based projects, and have been doing so since 2015.[1] Major global banks such as Goldman Sachs and ANZ are also exploring blockchain technologies as a means to cut transaction costs and time. With the current market sentiment on cryptocurrencies, how does a platform based on cryptocurrency and blockchain such as Atlas position itself?
At Atlas, we hope to build a platform that accommodates the technological advances present in cryptocurrencies to build an ecosystem for freelancing. To further elaborate, consider a Fiat currency. By definition, a Fiat currency, such as the Japanese Yen, is a currency that a government has declared to be legal tender, but is not backed by a physical commodity. The reason why the Japanese Yen has value is due to supply and demand, and Atlas’ WORK token works in a similar manner. Atlas as an ecosystem, acts as a market that translates the demand and supply of WORK tokens into transactions, an aspect similar to the Japanese economy with the yen. The demand forces in the Atlas platform are driven by freelancers, where freelancers increase the demand for WORK by completing more jobs. Within the Japanese economy, if there is an increase in transactions, this means that there is an increase in demand for the currency, which further indicates higher consumption. Likewise, an increase in transactions utilizing the WORK token will indicate an increase in demand, which in the case of Atlas points to an increase in the number of jobs completed. The WORK Token is designed to be a utility token that mirrors a fiat currency like the Japanese Yen, in its rawest form. Where, by ignoring foreign exchange forces and balancing of reserves, the currency serves as a means to transact an amount of a good or service, with an acceptable amount of assets.
That being said, there are still key differences between a fiat currency and a cryptocurrency. A fiat currency is a tangible system of money that is used in an economy, however cryptocurrencies are essentially data with financial characteristics. Furthermore, it seems unreasonable to compare a cryptocurrency, the most popular of which conducts 334,201 transactions a day[2] to the 4th most used payments currency representing 3.46%[3] of global transactions. Another key difference between a fiat currency and a cryptocurrency is that the global scope of a cryptocurrency makes it relatively desensitized to macro and micro economic conditions. Traditional and more accepted fiat currencies such as the Japanese Yen, are constantly subject to various market forces such as interest rates, consumption, and foreign exchanges.
At Atlas, we aim to create a platform that is driven by a sustainable currency. As such, with the WORK token, we are constructing a cryptocurrency that represents the value of the platform in which it is embedded, rather than itself as an asset. The value of WORK is determined by the amount of transactions completed in WORK tokens. Considering the nature of a freelance platform, the amount of transactions taking place are directly caused by the number of jobs completed. With Atlas, the fact still remains that the cryptocurrency aspect of the platform is used as a means to facilitate agility with faster transactions and lowered costs. The introduction of an instant digital asset exchange allows for liquidity and provides users of Atlas a fluid freelancing experience devoid of potential complications with cryptocurrencies. Within Atlas, the philosophy behind utilizing cryptocurrencies as payment is the same philosophy under which the first cryptocurrencies were created. Bitcoin’s conception came after the 2008–09 financial crisis, as a response to lowered trust in central regulatory bodies. Similarly, by utilizing work, Atlas hopes to provide freelancers power over their own income, without the need for the platform regulating and monitoring payments.
Bloomberg recently described the cryptocurrency market as the early stages of the internet, further issuing a cryptic warning about how just like when the tech bubble burst, there will be “Winners and losers”. The internet was originally built in order to solve the world’s problems by creating a medium to share files globally. In a recent TED talk Dr. David Z. Morris, brings to light the multitude of solutions that applying blockchain can provide; from improving the lives of derived farmers to automating a parking complex. Atlas hopes to accomplish something similar with blockchain by solving the problems that the next generation of employees, freelancers, experience. Just like the earlier domains such as Google and Yahoo, Atlas aims to utilize modern technological advances to solve real-world problems, starting with the way in which people engage in work.
On a final note, the Atlas team would like to introduce our Discord server. We hope to utilize the discord server as our main means of engaging with the community. Discord allows us to pipeline all interactions to one consolidated medium which ensures that the team does not miss any crucial feedback. We soon hope to start engaging with the community thoroughly in order to construct the ideal freelancing platform. Over the coming weeks we will be publishing more newsletters that better describe the core pillars upon which Atlas is built, the company vision and technology behind the platform.
Stay tuned!
Link to TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a53YgjlGM2c
[1] Rueters
[2] Blockchain.info
[3] Bloomberg
