There are so many forms of employment which don’t require ever meeting face to face; writing, coding, design, video creation, editing, translation, and customer service are among the tasks outsourced to freelancers every day. Cryptogrind, XBTFreelancer, and the Jobs4Bitcoins subreddit are currently the premier sites where employers and freelancers connect for payment in Bitcoin.
Cryptogrind
Founded by Richard Macarthy, Cryptogrind matches employers with freelancers, provides escrow addresses to hold payment until job completion, and acts as third-key mediator in the case of a dispute. The top-earning freelancer on Cryptogrind is “billy,” a developer who offers Bitcoin integration for website owners who want to accept cryptocurrency for payment. While billy is the top-earner, it must be remembered that he’s completed only one job; Cryptogrind is new and its talent pool is in its early stages.Unlike marketplaces like Fiverr, which are difficult to compete in due to price floors and un-advertised add-on charges, Cryptogrind and the others listed here allow employers and freelancers to agree upon their own price for a job. Cryptogrind keeps a 4% fee of all escrowed funds.
XBTFreelancer
Employers currently posting at XBTFreelancer include ShapeShift and Coinbase, along with a host of other blogging, development, marketing, and search engine optimization jobs. The service encourages freelancers to establish “milestones” of set prices with employers. This way, if a job is long and complex, freelancers can get paid as they complete each milestone, and the employer can give consistent feedback that the work is satisfactory.
Jobs4Bitcoins
The subreddit Jobs4Bitcoins features both “for hire” and “hiring” posts. An average of three new posts go up per day, ranging from alpha-tester roundups to college students looking to hire out a research paper.Because the posts live on Reddit, there is no built-in escrow service for employers’ funds to be held for freelancers. Users will likely want to employ a third-party escrow service like EscrowCoin or BTCrow before beginning any work. Moderator of the Jobs4Bitcoins subreddit Matthew also offers his own escrow services. Really technical employer/freelancer pairs could avoid third party fees altogether by just using a 2-of-2 multisignature address between themselves to hold the funds.
Freelancing websites are huge. Just check out the size of the membership of a site like UpWork (a merger of eLance and oDesk) to get a sense of the need for digital outsourcing. And though Fiverr accepts Bitcoin from hiring clients, they do not offer Bitcoin payment to freelancers — and they keep 20%. Cryptogrind, XBTFreelancer, and the Jobs4Bitcoin subreddit are likely to grow as more career freelancers learn about the benefits of cryptocurrency.
