Bitcoin micropayment service aims global freelancers

A new bitcoin micropayments tool has launched to target the global freelance and on-demand services market.

As reported by CoinDesk, Faradam (after inventor Michael Faraday), the service uses a simple timer to enable payment between two parties, with freelancers seeking to leverage the service only needing to provide their name, hourly work rate and bitcoin address. In turn, those looking to employ short-term services simply receive a link and connect a wallet.

Created by former Quasar Ventures senior business analyst Demian Brener and Manuel Araoz, the developer behind early decentralized verification project Proof of Existence, the project boasts three full-time employees and is based in Argentina.

Given its high bitcoin adoption rates, it's in this region where Brener believes Faradam could have the biggest impact, telling CoinDesk:

"What we're now doing is focusing mainly on use cases where people have bitcoin like international freelancers, and they charge their clients in bitcoin. In Argentina, we don't have a PayPal, it's really hard to charge for freelance services from the US."

Brener said that Faradam was inspired by Streamium users, who saw that the ability to charge for services rather than content would be broadly useful. He indicated he now sees that project as a proof of concept for what could be a variety of more commercial use cases.

"The value of what we did lies not in the livestream video, but the metered payment infrastructure," he continued. "This lets you charge in real time for on-demand services."

Brener went on to suggest Faradam will focus on bitcoin users in "niche markets", before adding other payment methods depending on the product's use.

Faradam charges 1% fee for all payment sessions facilitated on the service, a contrast to Streamium's free, open-source model. The company does not plan to enter an incubator at present, the report said.