ChronoBank, a time-based cryptocurrency initiative, has announced a forthcoming LaborX exchange: a blockchain-based initiative that will connect employers and workers directly, with the aim of disrupting and disintermediating the short-term recruitment sector. This is essentially an exchange on which buyers and sellers of work can trade skills for time and money.
The recruitment industry has many intermediaries charging high fees to introduce suitable employees to businesses seeking to fill vacancies. Although this is generally accepted as the price of business for long-term appointments, it can be prohibitively expensive for contract or freelance work. Organisations can spend more time and money securing an employee than they do on the work.
Backed by major Australian labour hire company Edway and using blockchain technology, ChronoBank’s LaborX exchange will revolutionise the way the short-term recruitment sector works by creating decentralised mechanisms for employers to access and rank prospective employees. The LaborX exchange, which is built on Ethereum’s smart contracts platform, will enable workers and businesses to connect on a peer-to-peer basis.
Using LaborX, organisations can buy labour directly – in in a similar manner to Uber connecting drivers with those looking for a taxi, or Upwork allows freelancers to access work directly. Moreover, LaborX will include a decentralised reputation system that will enable workers to be rewarded in line with their talent and experience, instead of on a one-size-fits-all basis.
ChronoBank is now into the second month of its crowdfund, having already raised around 1,200 bitcoins as well as significant quantities of other cryptocurrencies. The project also received $1.1 million in venture capital funding from AXL Strategic Partners.
Although ChronoBank’s crowdfund is still under way, a significant proportion of the critical work has already been completed. The rewards contract, which handles automatic payment of dividends for token-holders, has been created, as has the exchange contract that will allow trading between different token types on LaborX. This exchange contract code has been implemented within the GUI of the ChronoWallet, allowing users to view offered rates and make trades. It is also possible to view amounts of Labour Hour tokens to be transferred in fiat equivalents, and to switch between different currencies.
