Over the last few years, I have noticed pain-points in the paradigm that exists between work that needs to be done and the people who can do it. From a developer’s perspective, they often spend months studying for Certifications or to score highly on a LeetCode or HackerRank test. At the same time, companies are hiring folks to source & recruit to get candidates into interviews where in-house technologists attempt to evaluate candidates’ skill set in a few hours.
Block-Ops, now released on the Kovan Testnet, is here to solve these problems by directly connecting do-ers with what needs to be done. Anyone in the world is able to create a project and stake a bounty within it. Similarly, everyone is able to submit their solution for a project. All of these Projects and Submissions are standard ERC-721 NFTs and payments are handled via decentralized smart contracts on the Ethereum Blockchain.
Why Block-Ops?
Project Managers
The traditional hiring method of sourcing, recruiting, & interviewing candidates is a long and costly process, and even once completed, you entrust a single developer to provide a solution to a problem you have now. By utilizing Block-Ops, you directly engage the entire world of developers to solve your problem, circumventing the recruiting process altogether. Best of all, if on the odd chance your project cannot be completed, you are free to pull your funds out at any time!
This gives you the benefits of open-sourcing your code, without needing to open-source your code.
Developers
We have designed our smart contracts as ERC-721 NFTs that double as decentralized escrow accounts. Upon creation of a contract, the creator (Project Manager) stores a bounty inside the NFT and upon completion of work, the developer can redeem these funds as payment.
Alongside the monetary incentive, the NFT serves as a proof-of-work done that the developer will carry with them forever. This can be displayed on a resume, social media profile, and even on Block-Ops!
Data Storage
We utilize both IPFS and Filecoin to store all Projects and Submissions, meaning you will never need to worry about accidentally misplacing or even deleting old code. Upon either Project Creation or Solution submission, the associated metadata and images are uploaded to IPFS then Filecoin. Once uploaded, you will be able to see your NFT in your Wallet. Check out our guide on adding the BlockOps NFT to your Web3 Wallet:
Next Steps
BlockOpsDao
The next thing we will begin working on is formalizing a DAO which will be regulated via our Block-Ops Token. The DAO itself will be responsible for setting and distributing platform fees to improve the Block-Ops service and create partnerships with other DAO's.
A fault in the insurance paradigm, especially in the United States, is benefits being tied to your employer. While Block-Ops directly solves the need for employment in terms of take-home-pay, it does not yet solve the insurance issue. That is why we are exploring a partnership with Opolis, a fantastic project that provides benefits to workers in the Web3 community such as:
- Health, Vision, & Dental Insurance
- FSA & HSA
- Group 401(k), Solo 401(k), and IRA options
Zero-Knowledge Proofs & Optimistic Rollups
If there is one thing we can take away from the madness of NFT Summer, it’s that the Ethereum blockchain is not yet ready to handle hundreds of millions of concurrent users. While we always plan to use Ethereum as our settlement layer, we are exploring various ZK solutions such as zkSync v2 and Optimistic Rollups like Arbitrum or Optimism so that we can continue delivering the Block-Ops platform with even lower fees.
Community Support Channel
Once we go live with the BlockOpsDao, we will create a managed Discord Server that will authenticate based on you having our governance token. This channel will be a fantastic home for collaboration between Developers and Project Managers. We will also use this channel to brainstorm ideas of how we can give back to the community. Some ideas we are already considering are an IRL Meet Up (with a virtual option), developing a dividend-paying NFT treasury, and helping cover the fees associated with a benefits provider like Opolis.co.
Conclusion
Don’t forget to check out our website https://block-ops.xyz and follow us on twitter for the latest information on the project. Also, check out this Kovan ETH Faucet from Chainlink to get some ETH to play with our dApp.
Want to get in touch? Shoot us a message on Twitter