Doing Freelance Work for Bitcoin

The deal seemed a match made in heaven: Bitcoin payments not only mean easy and quick payments with low transaction fees, but the cryptocurrency also offers anonymity for the employers and the freelancers alike.

But as in many cases of unbalanced marriages, being paid by Bitcoin on Fiverr was too good to last forever: in 2017 Fiverr decided to simply drop the idea…

Breaking up with Bitcoin

In 2017 many freelancers who heavily rely on Bitcoin were shocked to learn that they won’t be able to receive their well-deserved payments in the infamous cryptocurrency. When asked why Fiverr stopped supporting Bitcoin payments, the company mentioned two major reasons: unsatisfactory financial results and ‘lack of interest’. Fiverr also added that the alliance with Coinbase and only a handful of users relying on this unusual payment method just wasn’t worth the effort.

What’s next?

Thankfully Bitcoin enthusiasts shouldn’t say goodbye to their favorite cryptocurrency for good; there are a couple of other freelance sites who picked up the torch – including but not limited to the following companies:

Cryptogrind

Cryptogrind is a newcomer to the freelance industry, so it’s not surprising the company is still in the phase of gathering a decent user base. However, by explicitly advertising itself as a Bitcoin freelance platform, it not only clarifies which is the only accepted currency right from the beginning, but it also manages to make a memorable impact on the market. The service caters to the Bitcoin community with other things, too: several featured jobs revolve around implementing this cryptocurrency into your website or writing articles about it.

As for the financial side of things, Cryptogrind operates an escrow system in order to prevent fraud on the side of freelancers and employers alike, but surprisingly takes only a small cut (4%) on the escrowed funds.

XBTFreelancer

Despite being a relatively simple site, XBTFreelancer is intended for an international audience. Like its competitors we listed here, the service only accepts Bitcoin for transactions, but it also pays attention to those who are new to the world of cryptocurrency by featuring several suggestions on how to purchase Bitcoin.

XBTFreelancer provides a variety of job posts – including writing, marketing and web developing – that can be submitted by employers for free so that freelancers can submit their bids. Additionally the site encourages sellers to set up a string of milestones to help the employee’s job. The site operates an escrow system where 5% of the service fee is charged on all payments made within XBTFreelancer.

Jobs4Bitcoins

This is a bit of cheating, since Jobs4Bitcoins is not a professional freelance service but a subreddit page hosting both ‘hire’ (freelancer) and ‘for hire’ (client) types of jobs.

Being part of Reddit, Jobs4Bitcoins has many things on the plus side: you don’t need to create a separate account just to submit a one-time request, and there are no service fees either. Not to mention buyers and sellers can make deals exclusively in Bitcoins.

Unfortunately, though, escrow is completely missing, making clearing disputes extremely hard. However, Jobs4Bitcoins has a substitute solution for that, suggesting the use of either a third party escrow or a 2-of-2 multisignature (multisig) address.