How Crypto Is Empowering Freelancers Globally
Gone are the days when individuals are willing to give their all to a company. Not only are people tired of giving over 40+ hours per week to a role, but they are also done commuting to the office daily and not receiving benefits. We are in the age of gigs and freelancing, and we have cryptocurrency to thank for that.
Professionals used to worry that going freelance would limit their market, reach, and the number of customers they could accept. Thanks to crypto, those concerns are lessening or evaporating altogether. Keep reading to learn more.
Why the Gig/Freelance Economy is on the Rise
As we mentioned in the introduction, millennials and Gen Z are tired. Tired of the lie that they should work full time in order to live life for two weeks a year. In fact, as of writing this article, 45% of all freelancers are millennials. Upon a closer look, it’s easy to see why—the nuclear family is dead, and with the way the economy is crashing while daycare costs only continue to rise, a traditional work structure just doesn’t work anymore.
But it isn’t just because people are fed up that the gig/freelance economy is booming, but also because the internet and cryptocurrency have made it easier than ever before to live and work in a country that isn’t your own. While we will dive more into the role crypto plays in this below, we also want to acknowledge that governments around the world have stepped up to offer digital nomad or freelance visas, both of which further fuel the movement to freelance work.
No longer does a family that can barely survive in California have to stay there when one of the parents loses their job. Now, they can head to Portugal for a lower cost of living, as long as they have the talent/drive to join the growing ranks of freelancers worldwide.
How Crypto Helps Freelancers
Easy Global Payments
The most obvious way cryptocurrency empowers freelancers is the ease of global payments. You can have a client in any country, and as long as they know how to send crypto, a freelancer can accept it. Not only that, but thanks to automated market makers, freelancers can also accept almost any cryptocurrency and trade it for their cryptocurrency of preference in moments.
Cryptocurrency tends to have lower fees for transfers, and is almost always cheaper than bank wires. It also tends to be faster than most other methods of exchanging money across borders.
No Need For Bank Complications
Anyone who has moved abroad will understand, but convincing a foreign country to grant you a bank account can be nearly impossible depending on the country. Not only that, but in the countries where getting a bank account is a bit simpler, many individuals find themselves restricted to the banks they can use and the types of accounts they can utilize. For example, business accounts remain off limits to most digital nomads in most countries.
Cryptocurrency removes all this stress. Not only do you not need a bank account, but you can also choose from a variety of investing options. More and more Gen Zer’s are starting lives without the financial ties their parents had. They don’t have savings accounts, homes, or cars, and they paid for college themselves. With no need to stay in the country, crypto makes it simpler to leave; it’s easier to close everything down without the hassle of needing to close a bank account.
Financial Security in Insecure Countries
Many freelancers and gig workers are headed to countries and areas with less financial and emotional security than the place where they were born. They face untrustworthy governments, unfamiliar faces, and unknown economic futures. Cryptocurrency provides a safe haven in that they can maintain control of their cryptocurrency no matter where they are in the world—and they can leave without having to wait for banking hours to close their account. It also allows them to work in a country where the economy may be functioning better than their home.
Of course, there are some countries, like Russia and China, which have made crypto use illegal, but we don’t expect freelancers to head there anyway.
Easy to Establish
Even if you end up in a country with safe banks that will accept you, many require a lot of information to set up. Most require an address at minimum, which can be difficult to provide if you are in an area with a housing crisis (like the Netherlands), and others may require fingerprints, background checks, and other things which are difficult to provide at the drop of a hat.
The reality is, you don’t need any of this to set up a cryptocurrency wallet, and if you move too frequently to tie yourself to a single bank branch, crypto payments may be the only way you are able to ensure you have a steady stream of income as you travel the world with your freelance work. Especially thanks to the rise of crypto debit and credit cards.
Use of Smart Contracts
We slid this reason at the bottom because it is less common, though it does help. Many freelancers and gig workers find themselves in the tech space, and if they don’t want to work with a fiat escrow payment system (like Upwork), cryptocurrency provides an option to utilize smart contracts to ensure a freelancer is paid for their work.
While we like to see the best in people and believe that companies will always pay workers for their work, we find this is often not the case, and as such, freelancers have to take measures to protect themselves. The option they choose varies widely, but many who accept crypto as payment choose to do so using smart contracts, which automatically pay out when the work is complete.
Overall, while there was a freelance industry before crypto, the advent of cryptocurrency has transformed the space and made it more accessible to a larger part of society. While crypto isn’t fueling the turn toward freelance/gig life, it is certainly rising to meet the challenge of a more nomadic way of life.
