INTRODUCTION
According a study, the gig economy represents approximately 36% of the U.S. workforce and an astounding 1.4 Trillion in earnings to the economy. The same study estimates that the majority of the U.S. workforce will be categorized as freelance around 2027.
Put simply, the U.S. workforce is transforming and the freelance market is booming.
This transformation is an opportunity for start-ups companies to assist, support and disrupt the current freelance market. One of these companies that wants to disrupt the freelance market is Ethearnal.
Ethearnal is a decentralized freelance system that runs on blockchain that makes peer-to-peer transactions possible. The system consists of three main players or parties: Freelancers/Employers/Moderators. Blockchain smart contract technology binds these types parties by tokenizing economic and reputation initiatives. On Ethearnal, economic and reputational initiatives are the same. As a result, all parties, have strong and aligned initiatives to act honestly, since everyone has something of value at stake, as well as something to gain if the desired outcome is achieved. Ethearnal applies game theory for dispute resolutions based on the principle that the majority is always right.
In sum, Ethearnal is a well-balanced freelance system where all parties and transact and use moderators in the rare case when disputes arise.
ICO DETAILS
ICO 2.0 Model
Ethearnal will adopt an ICO model that is similar to Vitalik Buterin’s DAICO concept where Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) elements are brought into an ICO including the ability to leverage crowd wisdom, the distrust of centralized teams, and the ability to spread funding over time.
As such, 10% of the funds will be accessible to the Ethearnal team at a time, while the remaining funds will be locked in escrow until the company can completes the next phase. As Ethearnal team completes a development phase they will ask the ERT token holders to vote on unlocking the next 10%.
This model improves transparency and eliminates the risk that ICO resources are improperly used or used for personal gain.
ICO Dynamic CAP to Spread the Tokens As Widely As Possible
Ethearnal will also implement a dynamic cap method to distribute tokens as widely as possible so the bulk of them will not end up with a small group of people and allow smaller investors the opportunity to invest in Ethearnal.
This will work by setting a cap for each round and raising the cap each subsequent round. While a big investor can generate any number of addresses, they likely won’t want to incur the huge fees for each. Ethearnal will start with a $1000 cap and increase the cap amount by $1000 each hour. Each new hour a previous address is allowed to participate again.
Ethearnal believes that the above method will level the playing field without having to implement an invasive bureaucracy.
MARKETING
Ethearnal has probably the best marketing plan that I’ve seen in a whitepaper. The reason is simple: they need to ensure that freelancers and employers are aware of Ethearnal and are present when the system is ready to use. The challenge is freelancers and employers are two different target groups, therefore different marketing strategies will be deployed.
As such, Ethearnal will target, engage, and use the following social media groups and marketing methods:
- Facebook and optimized ads
- AdWords
- Airdrops
- Paid mentions
- PRs
- Bounties
- Google Adwords at Google Search
- Videos and viral video production
For a detailed description of how Ethearnal plans to use each marketing entity, please read their whitepaper and/or visit their website.
ICO DISTRIBUTION DETAILS
| TOKEN SYMBOL | Ethearnal (ERT) |
| TOKEN TYPE | ERC-20 |
| ICO PERIOD | 28 February – 31 March 2018 |
| TOTAL SUPPLY | 40,000,000 |
| TOKEN RATE | 1 ETH = 1000 ERT |
ICO PROCEED ALLOCATION
| Marketing | 70% |
| Product Development | 25% |
| Legal/Administrative | 5% |
ROADMAP
| FEB 2018 | ICO |
| MAR 2018 | Integrate Ethereum smart contracts as DAO platform for freelancers |
| MAR 201i8 | Integrate IPFS to add another layer of data persistence and availability |
| APR/MAY 2018 | Develop own decentralized system for moderating and curating records |
| MAY 2018 | Start building strong open source community |
| JUN 2018 | Release production network and software |
| Q3-Q4 2018 | Iterate over continuous integration of new features and bug fixes |
| Q3 2018 | Start development of mobile platform |
| Q4 2018 | Release application for iOS & Andriod |
| Q1 2019 | Integrate OpenAI in the search engine and the Ethearnal Personal Assistant Bot |
| 2019 | [Marketing Campaigns](https://ethearnal.com/#roadmap) |
FINAL THOUGHTS
The freelance industry is a blockbuster of a global market to be in. Ethearnal obviously wants to tap directly into the market and be both part of the gig economy and the exponential growth of the cryptocurrency market. That is a huge advantage, but at the same time it also increases the probability that other start-ups are thinking exactly the same thing. Ethearnal will have plenty of competition within their space from other blockchain start-ups. Blocklancer, FreelancerCoin, Coinlancer, and CanYa are some off the top of my head.
The same rush to market is occurring in several other sectors. Gambling comes to mind where there are more cryptocurrency gambling start-ups than you can shake a stick at, with more coming out each month. Certainly, more than one company competing against each other is good for consumers, and if the market is not fully saturated, several companies can split the profit pie.
Ethearnal’s ecosystem is simple, but well thought out. Nothing within their workflow seems over-engineered or needlessly complicated. I also like that they have approached their ICO with the same rigor and decided to adopt and implement new methods to improve fairness and only get awarded for work approved by ERT holders. It’s almost as if Ethearnal is in an ICO contract as the freelancer and the token buyers are the employers and they only will release funds when they are satisfied with the quality of the milestone. Ethearnal is taking their own medicine and they certainly didn’t have too.
I am a little worried that their growth will be tied to how fast cryptocurrencies will be accepted and integrated into mainstream. While it seems like there is daily cryptocurrency news, the average person still does not own any. I wonder Ethearnal should consider temporarily accept fiat until they reach critical mass. Regardless, if you believe, as I do, that cryptocurrencies will eventually be the new overall economy, then it’s not hard to assume that Ethearnal has all the components in place to be highly successful.
Lastly, I love like that Ethearnal takes marketing seriously. The fact that the project caught my eye speaks volumes, right?
I'm eager to use Ethearnal and I think you should consider following their progress.
Their ICO starts 28 February and they have a live demo of what their interface will look like.
REFERENCE LINKS
Ethearnal Website
Team
Whitepaper
Demo
FAQ
Telegram
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Traversing the Cryptosphere,
Kryptonaut (GeneralCryptoZod on Telegram)
Bitcointalk profile: johnnyjj