DeHR (Decentralized HR): a Series by Twali’s HR Guild, Envario
About / Summary
IndieDAO is a community of expert builders that help launch cutting edge web3 products and teams win. Backing their efforts is a Future of Work protocol powering the next generation of innovative businesses.
Indie Protocol powers up expert builders with the core components of consulting: invoicing, contracts, legal, reputation, payments and equity. The protocol is currently in-market and has been fine-tuned across 40+ successful product launches with web3 teams such as Poolsuite, Creature World, Pussyriot, UnicornDAO, Medallion, FWB, Pinata, Gnosis, Rook, Rohki, Young & Sick, and more.
IndieDAO hosts a shared brand in which teams or squads can spin up and down to deliver badass projects, all facilitated by smart contracts.
Key Takeaways/Quick Facts
- The idea for IndieDAO came out of ETHBerlin in 2018 as solution to combine the best parts of Gig Economy with the ideals of the Ownership Economy
- Indie Protocol handles the boring business parts of running a consulting business (lead generation, marketing, sales, assembling project teams, administrative work, etc.) so that experts can join IndieDAO and do what they do best
- IndieDAO offers mvp builds, full stack development, product design, and many more professional services for organizations and teams
- Lvl Protocol, a reputation aggregator built by IndieDAO, serves as a mechanism to help with team formation, governance, and growth journeys for professionals
- $INDIE token governs decision making/voting managed via Snapshot
- Indie Protocol is set for early access in early 2023
What it Does / Doesn’t Do
Does:
- Helps independents find work, and matches talented workers with clients.
- Offers product launches with management, design, and development services.
- Handles contracts with independents and business partners.
- Assembles teams of contributors to work together.
- Business administration, including invoicing clients and paying freelancers.
- Enable reputation management via interoperable blockchain protocol (Lvll Protocol) to facilitate vetting and evaluation of freelancers.
- Source and assess talent through its application “Skyhook.”
Doesn’t:
- Offer services for areas outside of web/software design and development (yet).
- Post opportunities publicly for freelancer viewing and submission. (Matching to opportunities / team assembly handled by IndieDAO directly.)
- Provide a searchable talent database for customers to find and engage individuals for projects. (Matching to talent / team assembly handled by IndieDAO directly.)
What Sets It Apart
Progressive Protocol Design:
Indie Protocol infrastructure is built as a positive sum game for both clients and independents. The rules of engagement in that game have been iterated on over 40+ projects to arrive at a new decentralized framework for doing work. By progressively maturing the protocol through these playtests, the community is ensuring quality and reliability in its execution and delivery.
Niche Focus:
IndieDAO focuses on web and software design and development, setting its sights on two specific and complementary classes of talent to enable delivery of end-to-end solutions for client needs.
This specificity of interest will enable the protocol to be tailored to the nuances and needs of this arena of work, creating the conditions to deliver an optimal experience for both its freelancers and its clients.
Reputation Management Protocol:
Lvl protocol is a reputation aggregator built by IndieDAO to describe and validate a freelancer’s credibility, credentials, and achievements as represented by “Skills” which are informed by data that is objectively aggregated from Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchains. Lvl Protocol enables IndieDAO (and other protocols which may utilize Lvl Protocol) to slurp in any on-chain, off-chain, or reputation-based data into single skill values that can be understood universally.
This blockchain-based view of a freelancer’s capabilities provides a unique level of trustworthiness and quality control for clients, and an avenue for freelancers for establishing and building credibility, career advancement, and gaining access to new opportunities.
Sourcing and Assessment:
Skyhook is an application that was developed by 2C to enable finding and collecting individuals for its talent database, and to facilitate and track assessment of their capabilities.
This proprietary technology enables fast and scalable discovery, evaluation, and filtering of talent for the purpose of streamlined and reliable matching to clients’ project needs.
Value Proposition for Freelancers:
IndieDAOs value proposition for freelancers is a “best of both worlds” scenario where they can do their best work with flexibility and autonomy in selecting their opportunities the conditions under which they prefer to work (including schedules and locations), while also benefit from the business support that would typically come from a traditional full time employment model (along with its requisite constraints and often unfavorable terms).
Freelancers are relieved from non-work-related responsibilities such as marketing, sales, and invoicing, and thus free to focus on quality execution and on honing their craft.
Value Proposition for Clients:
Organizations looking for optimal execution and top quality design and development benefit from working with top talent that is only accessible from a freelancer marketplace. The workers they engage with are part of a community that they’ve opted into by their preference, afforded to them by their unique capabilities.
Freelancers are also backed by blockchain-based skills representations, providing a level of data-informed trustworthiness that goes well beyond resumes and other self-attested representations of their abilities and past achievements.
Lastly, clients whose needs go beyond a single resource can be matched with dynamic teams, providing end-to-end service for their design and development needs at a capacity that can meet their requisite scope and timing.
