Creating a Seamless System for the Rising Gig Economy

Wale J. Daramola, FRSA, Founder and Chief Architect, Gig Economy Platform

Skilled workers and professionals are increasingly turning to alternative working arrangement such as freelancing, remote work, and independent contract work, and the monetary  value of gig economy is growing. However, in spite of this potentially ever growing workforce more especially in the post COVID-19 era, this still remains an area that governments across the world have not been able to give adequate support to or access this growing number of gig workers. As a result of this, they are forced to navigate a regulatory landscape and policies that are not clear. Not only does it negatively affect the long-term growth of the gig economy, but governments are deprived of substantial tax revenue from gig workers.

Gig Economy Platform, is a UAE based project that aims to solve the prevailing issues, and make it easy and beneficial for workers, companies and governments. The decentralized Gig Economy Platform, leverages the power of Blockchain DLT, AI and advanced financial technologies to build a seamless, integrated platform for the gig workers, with the belief that as the domain gain more traction, governments across the world will review the current regulatory landscape and outline clear policies.

The Gig Economy Platform in a Nutshell

In a simple term, Gig Economy Platform is a decentralized blockchain platform for the rising gig economy with features such as job matching, peer-to-peer payment, business-to-people payment, and tax filing. 

Regarding the purpose of the platform, Mr. Wale J. Daramola  Fellow Royal Society of Arts, Founder and Chief Architect of Gig Economy Platform, says, “Our innovation enables freelancers, and remote workers to access job opportunities digitally, file taxes and earn extra via our cryptocurrency trading. This allows them more flexibility and freedom in their professional careers as they support on-demand work to all corporate bodies.” He adds, “The platform will also give more control over how they want to be paid, in what currencies; and how they access their money.”

It’s an ever evolving platform, increasing in database and capabilities, unlocking the power of digital technologies to truly empower all workers and put them on the track for future remote jobs and payments. It works for all Governments, Companies and Contractors that pay has to workers.

With the outbreak of COVID-19, we are experiencing the insufficiency of traditional system of work and payment as we quickly shift to remote working. A platform such as Gig Economy Platform is a solution to this kind of working setup, having all the systems of traditional work in a single remote platform.  

Solving the Insufficiencies of Traditional Payment System

Today all the companies that outsource large amounts of work to freelancers find the legacy systems and practices insufficient. Traditional payroll is not practical to handle the growing volumes of labor wages and invoices of gig economy. Gig Economy Platform, a subscription payable SaaS, is designed to tackle such insufficiency. Daramola asserts, “Our embrace of Blockchain and AI automation carries inherent advantages, namely, the freeing up of resources in terms of time, money and people whereby smaller finance departments will be able to do more without having to grapple with daily repeating functions.”

Intelligent Job Matching for Gig Economy

With advanced AI built in, Gig Economy Platform is an intelligent platform capable of carrying out accurate labor market analysis. It has the ability to intelligently match digital jobs to the right candidate. The platform can carry out identification process which allows job providers or data examiners to check the capacity and readiness of a worker for a job. It can specifically analyze over 15 skill sets which include: Analytical skills, Communication skills, Computer skills, Conceptual skills, Creative thinking and Critical thinking.

Other features such as real-time payment withdrawal at low exchange fee, social marketing and networking, are crucial for the community of gig economy.

Making Tax Filing Easy for Workers and Governments

The platform expands the choice for workers to cash in on the multi-million opportunity of the growing gig economy. However, the present murky nature of government policies regarding gig market makes it difficult in tax filing. This also deprives government of substantial tax revenue. Daramola explains, “It deprives governments of substantial tax revenues due to the fact that they are employed informally and therefore do not find it any easy to register their jobs capacity. That’s why we have included tax filing and transfer pricing ledger via DLT in our platform.” The platform makes it easy for gig workers to do their tax filing and thereby helping government to better assess gig economy and increase revenue.

Networking for Collaborative Success 

Having done a significant research, the team has a good understanding of the current challenges with knowledge to take gig economy to a good future. Besides the technological capability, expanding user base and building a good relationship with workers, big companies and government become crucial. And this is a focus of the company. 

 In 2019, Gig Economy Platform took part in Dubai Future Accelerators 6th cohort with a focus on identifying the market requirements for their initial concept of the GigEcoin platform. The initial approach was to connect graduates with job opportunities in the private and government sector. Daramola asserts, “Through the participation in the program, we were able to connect and build relationships with key educational institutions and gain better insights into the current market structure and requirements.”  He adds, “The Dubai Higher College of Technology is a research and Development partner among others that has helped the brand to spot and nurture a talent pool to compete globally for remote work.” 

Gig Economy Platform looks forward to being a part of the now postponed Dubai Expo 2020, which is expected to attract over 25 million guests.  In all these, Mr. Daramola gives credit to the leaders of UAE for their openness to test and adopt emerging tech solutions for all the opportunities. 

Set to Go Big for the Future of Work

Having established a good network, the Gig Economy Platform is set to launch in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). The platform is ready for IOS and Android, which mean jobs can now be actively exchanged on the platform with payment option available in few selected currencies.

What started out as a two-man team project now has many experts and professionals from a variety of backgrounds including tax advisors, bankers, economists, blockchain experts, marketing communications professionals and programmers. It is expanding its programming team to India setting up branches in Kerala and Chennai where they have at one point had over 120 programmers working together over a period of 7 days to meet a deadline.

Although the prevailing situation of COVID-19 has derailed the initial plan, the GigEcoin team have been able to take advantage to make their contribution to the fight against the pandemic by introducing an innovative feature to the D.app which makes the team a COVID-19 Spread Containment Service Provider with a capacity to identify (+) positive or (-) negative status of any worker on the platform using profile verification via the Health Department’s data. 

All in all the Gig Economy Platform remains committed to revolutionize how we work and do business. “We remain dedicated to expand and set up one of the most powerful infrastructures for decentralized jobs with a well-defined regulatory structure, scalable, flexible and usable,” says Wale J. Daramola.