Hello Friends

Nothing better than a freelance work at home!!*

Two weeks ago I was searching for an app which could help me to earn some free ETH during my free time.  After a lot of searching, I came across an app named Bitmaker by cakecodes. 1 million+ installs and a rating of 4.0 seemed very good for such an app. This app basically lets you complete surveys, install apps, view ads and earn points in exchange for it. These points called blocks can later be exchanged for ETH and BTC.

Current Bitmaker App with it's popular claim reward screen

Upon further research I found that these guys are now going to re-brand their Bitmaker app as StormX and launch it as a platform for gamified tasks and jobs. They are even doing a crowdsale on 20th October to gather funds for the same. More about it near the end of this article. 

Gamification:

Gamification is the new trend where sites, platforms are designed in such a way that a user has to gain various levels to access more diverse content and increase their opportunities of profits. A good UI (user interface) also plays an important role in this. The aim is to educate and train the user about various functions/uses of the site in a playful manner.

 

Journey from beginner to master, a key gamification concept

One great example is Steemit itself! Here a new user without any SP has very few chances to earn. But with regular interaction with the community, posting quality content and getting upvotes on it, the user keeps gaining new reputation levels. After 500 SP, an actual weapon upgrade unlocks called Vote slider. Now instead of firing one big fireball in one direction, the user can fire many small fireballs in many directions!! And of course increased SP and reputation means increased upvotes and curation rewards.

100% Vote vs. Vote Slider!!*

Bitmaker app already has good user interface, but the team wants to incorporate gamification in it, so that user retention increases and new users find it easier to learn and earn on the site.

Action Loops are very helpful in user retention

Blockchain:

Can this be called a blockchain, LOL!!!*

The use of blockchain to verify and validate data is widely known to all crypto users. And with the smart contracts on ETH blockchain, the whole process of validation and payments become automated. 

This is what StormX aims to do. As per their whitepaper:

Storm Market is a micro-rewards platform that uses “Storm Tasks” that are templates for agreements (Ethereum based smart contracts). Storm Tasks lay out timelines, milestone markers, and payment terms. The implementation of Storm Market Storm Tasks provides protection for both parties decreasing the likelihood of foul play. Task Creators (Storm Makers) list requirements that are expected for a specific tasks and only engagers (Storm Players) who are qualified can carry out the task. This ensures a high quality of performance, increasing the overall trust in the platform. Automation via the blockchain reduces friction and carries out all contracts seamlessly. 

The other main use of blockchain pointed out by the team is that blockchain would enable them to significantly reduces the fees associated with posting, performing a micro-task and withdrawals.

Online Freelance Sector:

With the help of online freelance platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, AmazonMturk; freelancers from different countries are able to work for clients all over the world, with their own terms and timings. Anybody with a stable internet connection and a desktop, laptop or even a tablet can work on projects ranging from a small translation task to a long term job of developing a crypto exchange!!

A crypto job on Upwork

In the United States alone, 34% of the workforce consists of freelancers and that number is expected to rise to 50% by the year 2020. In India, over 135 million people rely on freelancing as a primary reward for their time.

Sites like Task Rabbit allows to search, apply and get hired online for labour jobs like cleaning, transporting etc. And other sites like crowdflower allow users to complete micro tasks on any device.

I have myself worked a lot on AmazonMturk and Upwork and I really appreciate their role in my life after I quit from my last job, in Zara. Without sites like these, it would have been very difficult for me to keep myself motivated. Through Upwork, I have worked for clients like Wikihow, famous Canadian Chef Eric Arrouzé, an electricity company in US, an Asian actor in US and most recently Lionbridge, which is now my major source of income. 

And I am sure, most readers here would have worked on Amazon Mturk, during their initial online working days. Do tell me in the comments how much maximum you have earned there!!!

Problems associated with Freelance Sector:

1) The first one is of course centralization. Because of centralization the aim is to increase the profits, decrease expenses and therefore the interests of users, especially freelancers are ignored.

2) High Fees is also one of the biggest issues. Fees in name of commission cut, withdrawals are most popular and can consume as much as 40% of the freelancer's income. Some sites like AmazonMturk do not take any fees from the users, but then they charge heavily from the clients. 

3) Withdrawals are not instant. Also many a times, there are no withdrawal options for countries where Paypal is not available.

4) Most of these platforms are not very mobile friendly and a desktop/laptop is the recommended device to work on them.

5) A longer learning curve, complexity and very plain UX is not ideal for everyone. For example, I always recommend Upwork to all those who ask me for online earning advice. But so far none of them have been able to learn how to even complete the profile and apply for a job there. And these are some things, which can not be fully explained, but learned after experimenting. 

Role of StormX: 

The StormX aims to solve these issues with the use of blockchain and gamification as I mentioned in the above sections in detail.

But the question is, can it?

Let's see the positives and negatives. These positives and negatives can also be used to gauge the success and failure of the Storm tokens, which are Ethereum based ERC-20 tokens. They will be used as StormX native currency, just like SBD, Steem is for Steemit. 

Positives:

• With their bitmaker app which has been running for past 3 years, they certainly have a lot of experience with cryptos. They also have more than 1 million+ installs with a 4x retention rate (as claimed by Bitmaker) in comparison to other similar apps. So basically they do have a MVP for past 3 years!!
• StormX CEO Simon Yu has a vast experience in data optimization and strategic thinking, which led him to turn a $100 loan into $1 million in revenue!! Other than him, the company CTO Arry Yu has worked at higher levels in companies like Google, Microsoft, Expedia, KPMG etc. And other team members are also hard core professionals in their respective fields. 

StormX CEO Simon Yu

• Working for past 3 years, they have also made good relationships with the advertisers and other clients which helps them to get lot of tasks for the users.
• Recently during a private pre-sale, they raised $16.5 million and the participants included Jaxx Founder and CEO Anthony Di Iorio, Bancor Co-Founder Guy Benartzi,  AlphaBit.fund CEO Liam Robertson and Fund Strategist Brad Mills, VOIP  pioneer and Vonage Founder and CEO Jeff Pulver, Blockchain Partners  Korea, Alchemist Ventures and Ethereum Chief Strategist Steven Nerayoff  Esq. LL.M., Brian Kelly Capital LLC Founder and CNBC contributor Brian  Kelly, and CIO and Managing Partner of BlockTower Capital Ari Paul. Clearly the project has been backed by some of the most popular and influential personalities of the crypto world, especially Bill Shihara CEO & Founder, Bittrex. More about this can be read here.
• Positive news on sites like NASDAQ, GeekWire, Cointelegraph etc.

• Mandatory KYC during the crowdsale to avoid any issues related to Govt. regulations later.
• Lower fees and commissions + global payments + more emphasis on smartphone will help in the widespread adoption of this app by the people all over the world. 
• Gamification and use of blockchain certainly gives an edge to StormX.

Negatives:

• Project StormX compares itself to sites like Upwork, Amazon Mturk and Task Rabbit, but the reality is that there is no match between StormX and these giants as of now. As evident from their whitepaper, their main focus is on micro-tasks, surveys, advertisements etc. Then further down the lane, they would have tasks which can be equaled to some tasks available on AmazonMturk, fiverr, some big survey sites like InstaGC etc. But matching up to sites like Upwork is totally another thing. It not only has diverse and reputed clients, but also it allows more complex projects to be worked upon using various team management tools. Task Rabbit is of course another big player with it's focus on labour jobs. Although, blockchain projects like Chronobank might make a dent on Task Rabbit, but it is yet to be seen.
• As of now there are no plans for a fully functional desktop platform for StormX. Without it, the tasks are limited to smartphones and tabs, which means no crypto exchange platform development projects!!
• A lack of roadmap is also a concern. Although Simon has promised to include it in the further news updates. And rebranding of the current Bitmaker app is also said to be done soon, but when, no one knows.

The best of their roadmap!

• One of the negative points is the pre-sale itelf, where the early investors were given a whopping 53% bonus on their Storm tokens!! Users have already voiced their opinion against this, that they are not comfortable with this. StormX response to this bonus is that this bonus was necessary as these backers have actually helped the project to come to this stage and is also essential for their marketing, guidance services etc. Also the tokens of the early investors will be locked up for a 90 days period.
•  KYC is also another double edged sword. On one hand it will protect the project from the Govt. regulations, but on the other hand it will discourage users to participate in the crowdsale. After all how many crypto users would be comfortable in providing their identity proofs along with a selfie with them!! But again, the info is safe as per Simon as they are using  the services of Cynopsis Solutions, which is a reputed regulatory technology company based in Singapore.

Verified!*

Some token and upcoming crowdsale related info:

The tokens are ERC-20 compliant, ETH based tokens. Total cap is 10 billion tokens and ETH Cap for total crowdsale including the private pre-sale to advisors etc. is 206,295 ETH. Below is the detailed token distribution structure.   

10% users essentially mean airdrops and bounties.

Token Conversion rate:

STORM/ETH = .00003711 

ETH/STORM = 26,950

Timeline of Events: 

Community Appreciation Period Signup: October 7th (6AM PST)-October 8th (6AM PST)  

Community Appreciation Period Registration and KYC: October 10th (6AM PST)  

Public Registration and KYC: October 11th (6AM PST)  

Crowdsale: October 20th (6AM PST)

Community Appreciation Period Signup window was open for only 24 hours and unfortunately I got a bit late to report that here. I thought it would be open till the crowdsale period. People those who got confirmed in this list, will get 15% bonus on their tokens purchased during the crowdsale.

On 10th I completed my KYC for community appreciation list and I must say, the response is overwhelming. The server was often going busy and as per the official figures, 9,600+  unique members have registered along with KYC information. They were only expecting some 1500 members based on discord members.

Community members would be able to buy only 100 ETH worth max tokens per member. Also they can not buy after first 945,000,000 STORM tokens allocated for them have been purchased. Crowdsale is based on first come, first serve basis, so I guess there would be a lot of competition. 

Public KYC registration link will open on 11th Oct, that is by the time I will publish this article, it would be there. You can use this link to register and complete your KYC before 20th Oct.  https://stormtoken.com/tokensale 

Crowdsale for both community and non-community members would begin on 20 Oct. 

My Take on StormX project?

Honest opinions as always!*

Personally, I think it is a bit over ambitious and wrong to a certain degree, to compare StormX project with sites like Upwork. Also lack of a well defined roadmap is a big negative point.

But on the other hand,  this project can really come out as a leader in micro task freelance sector, which mainly includes, ad views, surveys, app downloads, small tasks etc. Bitmaker's experience and reach is also helpful to the StormX project. So that would save a lot of time and effort in comparison to building it from scratch. And most importantly, biggies like Bittrex CEO, are backing this project. Gathering $16.5 million in private pre-sale is a big thing, and certainly shows that the crypto industry has confidence in this project.

When I bet (participate in ICO!!) on a new project, then I give more preference to it's potential, experience of team and if possible then MVP. I leave out the technical details, token cap etc. I will myself be participating in this project and also invest some amount during the crowdsale. 

Wanna earn some Storm tokens for free?

Straight from the sky!*

As per the latest news from StormX, they would be doing an airdrop for Bitmaker app members. The airdrop would take place after the 1 month crowdsale period, or earlier if all the tokens are sold. So I would highly recommend all my readers to download the Bitmaker app from here. You can use the code 4RP0FW (zero not o) in referrer section to get 6000 free blocks. But that is totally optional. You can join without using the code also. Just make sure to claim some blocks everyday so that your status remains active and you can get the airdrop of Storm tokens.

What do you think?  

What are your opinions regarding this project? Can StormX really disrupt the freelance industry with the use of blockchain and gamification? Do you think it is worth investing in it or you would rather pass? Would you be comfortable in uploading your KYC info, to participate in a project with some good potential to succeed?

I give 100 POCKET tokens and upvotes to all Steemians who contribute their opinions on my posts. I never ignore comments on my post, and I would highly appreciate them!!! Upvote or not, but do comment. 😊

Storm Links:

                      

Thanking You

Siddartha Gupta

This article has been written as a crypto enthusiast who enjoys discovering, analyzing the potential of new crypto projects. I read the whitepaper, project blogs; remained active on communication channels like discord to gather info posted in this article. By no means, I would call myself as a professional or even near one. So, if you think there are any mistakes, feel free to point them.

Image Courtesy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

All images, expect the ones with star at the end of caption, have been taken from the StormX site and blogs. And the external images have been referenced above.

Page dividers and above art by @aleister

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