Getty Images
Traditional financial services tied to legacy management systems and outdated risk models are failing to meet the demand of today’s changing marketplace. Approximately 35 percent of the U.S. workforce were freelancers last year, and even before COVID-19, that number was predicted to rise to 50 percent by 2027. This growing demographic of drivers, couriers, designers, photographers, and more in the “gig economy” are finding themselves systematically underserved or excluded by financial institutions.
The flexibility and independence associated with gig work are the positives of this shift to more independent work. However, aberrations in week-to-week earnings are penalized by traditional providers of financial services and are sources of anxiety for those working in the gig economy. Traditional lenders and financial institutions rely on outdated risk models, indicators and eligibility criteria, and gig workers are often flagged as high credit risk and are either charged exorbitant rates or turned away.
Solving these real problems can be a driver for wide scale adoption of blockchain technologies, offering greater empowerment and transparency often lacking in closed platforms. As the traditional eight-hour shift or 9-5 desk job evolves, practical use of blockchain technologies can balance the power dynamics between closed platforms and independent workers servicing them.
The benefits for trust between parties and increased transparency for economic transactions offered by blockchain has been well documented on these pages. However, the chicken and egg scenario that plays out with nascent technologies are a barrier to adoption to those understandably skeptical of those offering utopian futures.
Changing the status quo means those working on blockchain technologies need to clearly demonstrate practical and near-immediate benefits to its users. It cannot just be abstract theory. Strategies that do not recognize this dynamic will continue to struggle. Empowering independent workers and breaking down the walls of closed platforms needs to show real-life, real-time value. By solving the problems of today, it addresses the skepticism and builds the trust proponents of blockchain technologies are promising.
That is why we have founded Moves as a viable next step, seeking to earn the trust of independent workers by offering affordable financial services for gig workers. With our launch, we are focused on offering a response to the challenges those driving for the rideshare apps and couriering food for the delivery apps are experiencing from the impacts of COVID-19. Moves has launched in Ontario, Canada by offering $2,500 low-interest loans to independent workers in the gig economy that traditional banks and credit scores disqualify from financial services.
At its core, Moves is empowering independent workers to create a new financial future for themselves that respects, recognizes, and understands how they work and make a living. Building Moves on the Open Application Network and deploying modern fintech solutions, Moves will be able to establish better customer relationships and provide more tailored and affordable products over time that will allow individualized offerings to scale, rather than rely on the outdated credit score system.
The medium-term potential to combine trusted blockchain data, behavioural economics, and a more complete picture of customer characteristics will empower customers and bring additional niche products to the market as the greater insight offered reduces the risk.
The data model will be used to produce a summary score called the Verifiable Confidence Interval, or VCI, which is hosted on The Open Application Network. Because this blockchain network is secure and immutable, it guarantees the authenticity of the VCI and provides an opportunity for third parties to transparently contribute to or consume the VCI in the future.
To those with a stable, recurring pay cycle and affordable access to credit, this may sound underwhelming. Yet the continued demand for exploitative payday lending services and the debt cycle it traps too many in demonstrates the need for solutions that instead empower independent workers. Moves will service the needs of an underserved and growing segment of our economy and be their trusted partner. We invite you to the Open Application Network to join them.