Microlancer: Bitcoin Lightning powered microtasks
⌛ Reading time: 7 minutes
Being a fan of Bitcoin through the Lightning Network (BTCLN) has led me to discover some gems within this world, some of which we have already talked about here. Lightning Network (LN) is the technology whose purpose is to accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin as a payment and exchange method by proposing a layer 2 protocol where when carrying out a transaction, a P2P communication link is established between two payment channels in such a way that users can carry out off-chain transactions, fast, almost with zero fees and safe.
Since the inception of Lightning Network many developers have coded apps (known as LApps) seizing the power of small, fast and secure payments with the leading cryptocurrency of the entire world: Bitcoin. Today i want to briefly introduce you, dear reader, to one of such LApps which i find it personally quite useful and a very good example of what can be achieved when programming apps over LN technology.
Meet Microlancer!
Microlancer.io defines itself as a microtasks app powered by Bitcoin over Lightning Network. Launched first in October 2018 (originally known as “Ask for Bitcoin”), is an app coded, designed and operated by a single person, trying to help make freelancing a more open and free place.
Contrary to what may be believed, Microlancer is designed for all types of tasks, and not only for Bitcoin or Lightning Network related tasks. Building and deplying Microlancerhas been possible by leveraging the low-fee microtransactions payment network built using Bitcoin smart contracts (Lightning Network)....payments are made in Bitcoin, off-chain, with almost no fees, and really quick **:)**
The tool is a way to pay or get paid by doing small tasks, or microtasks, to earn Bitcoin in exchange for your tiny efforts. You need to have first a LN powered Wallet of course (Wallet of Satoshi, lntxbot, Bitpie) loaded with some BTCLN if you want to post a task and pay people to do it or if you want to simply earn BTCLN you just need to set up a LN wallet...and start doing some tasks to receive your payments.
Basically the app is quite simple with 4 menus at the top of the page: Account, Tasks, Services and Activity.
Fig 1. Microlancer LApp as seen once you have logged in.
*▶* Account is basically your home page in the site. From here you can access other parts of the app like your profile, user preferences, security, etc.
*▶* Tasks menu lists all the tasks available in the system for people to do. Tasks are organized in such way that you can view first those “boosted tasks” (people pay a bit of BTCLN to promote their tasks to the top of the list so they can get more visibility: the more you pay, the higher up in the task feed your tasks will be shown). Here you can see the title of the task, the amount of Bitcoin that you can earn by doing that task and the amount of offers received to do it.
Fig 2. A detailed view of part of the Task feed.
Here we can find almost any kind of tasks: from testing apps to reviewing products or signing up to websites. The amount to be paid for each task is freely chosen by the creator of such tasks and it is upon on you to choose if it´s worth or not to do a given task taking into account its complexity and what you will gain.
*▶*Services menu showcase just that: the services you are able to lend in exchange for BTC. Services and Tasks are like an opposite thing: while Tasks showcase things that you want others to do for you and that people will be paid to do that, Services showcase those things you are able to lend to community and want to get paid for doing that.
Fig 3. A detailed view of part of the Services feed.
Here you can find Services like those shown above where someone asks for 10 000 satoshis to create for you some nice memes from your photos.
*▶*Activity is the menu that acts like a notification center where you will find all those new notifications regarding people interested in doing your Tasks or people interested in hiring you, given some Service you are offering in the system.
Whole App is full of filters where you can filter Tasks and Services by tags, by username, by amount to be paid or by category. And it is designed as a Single Page Application, Ajax powered, so users will find a comfortable space to do their work by posting tasks or hiring people in exchange for BTC over LN.
*So how does it works*? **:)**
The concept is really simple.
❶ Askers post a task or question they need help with.
❷ Others users place offers to help with the task.
❸ The asker accepts an offer.
❹ The asker deposit the funds in Microlancer´s escrow and wait for the tasker feedback when doing the task.
❺ Once the task is done the tasker (the user doing the task) give feedback to the asker so he can be able to check how the task was done.
❻ If successful, the aasker marks the task as completed and release the funds from the escrow.
❼ The tasker receive its payment for a job well done!
❽ If there are any disoute, Microlancer support will arbitrate the issue.
...and that is the whole process! It is simple right! **:)**
The system it is not a rigid system per se, so once you have posted a task or a service you can chat with some users and agree on the amount of BTC you are willing to pay in order to get things done on time and with the quality you need. This way you can pay less or more depending on the type of feedback you have for some users offers, making it a fair system for both, the asker and the tasker.
Microlancer tries to be a self-sustaining system by charging some fees for using some features of the platform. But at first glance we can realize that those fees are really really low compared with fees collected by other microtasks apps:
Fig 4. Microlancer´s fees.
Posting a task in Microlancer is really easy as well as collecting payments from the services you provide once those services are executed. At the end i think it is an App that worth a try....Now that you got the info on the whole scenario, it is up to you dear reader, to test it or not...
Final thoughts...by now
Microlancer is a well designed App, with low fees, useful and with a valid use case that we can seize to post our tasks and see them done in exchange for a bit of money in form of BTC over Lightning Network...or we can post our skills and wait to be hired, this way maybe we can earn a bit by doing what we already know and love.
I think it worth a try if you want to get some tasks done in exchange for a bit of money, because, let´s be honest: there is not such a thing like a free beer in this planet...at the end, you get what you pay for... **:)**
☞ One final note is that you need to be aware that malicious people are always just around the corner. As this is an App where you get paid to do certaing things like testing apps, someone could certainly pay you to download one app and getting installed to your device spreading things like viruses, so you need to be careful when choosing the tasks to complete.
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