In early 2018, a team of entrepreneurs in Singapore launched a startup called the Blue Whale Foundation[1], aiming to overcome the crucial problems of sharing economy, such as high commissions and no employment benefits for the self-employed. In the future, the Blue Whale platform could let any freelancer or small to medium enterprise (SME) scale their businesses and release their own token without giving up equity.
When an Uber-driver’s dream come true
In the early 2010s, the gig economy – also known as the sharing economy – boosted the rental markets, the short and long-distance rides markets, and the freelance markets. Behind this boom were platforms like Airbnb, Uber, Blah-blah-car, Freelancer.com, and numerous local copies of those platforms.
Since then, the euphoria has died down, and the army of self-employed workers and freelancers have had to come to terms with several crucial problems. These obstacles include high commissions at marketplaces, high marketing costs of using platforms such as Facebook and Google, and the total absence of employment benefits for those who are self-employed, such as paid leave or pension.
Blue Whale is based in Singapore with offices in San Francisco, Seoul and Zurich. It recently revealed its plans for building a decentralized ecosystem for the self-employed that will be able to solve their problems.
The project team is focused on creating a Decentralized Associated Network (DAN), a free marketing software enabling anyone to advertise for other services.
According to its white paper[2], Blue Whale is also working on developing a Reward Bank (ReBA) to allow freelancers and self-employed to get paid time off, health insurance and pensions. The ReBA will include a Blockchain based decentralized ledger that will ensure transparent distribution of BWX coins, reduce volatility and
