Git Money (Bitcoin)

(Crowdsourcing)

Git Money allows anyone to earn money by solving open issues on GitHub. Repository owners put up bounties for tasks and the reward is automatically paid to whoever submits the first successfully merged pull request. No need for interviews, contracts, or trust. So far 44 bounties have been claimed, for translating web pages, creating graphics/videos, writing a Medium article, and various programming tasks.

Of the projects on this list, Git Money is the only production ready application with high potential for near term adoption. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk has shown that crowdsourcing platforms are useful, and the model is a great fit for GitHub, the home of many cryptocurrency based projects. Git Money was designed using a 21 Bitcoin Computer.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again — it doesn’t matter where you’re from or who you are. We believe in the right to work anywhere on whatever you want. It doesn’t matter your gender, your education, your social or spiritual beliefs or your skin color.”

Augur (Ethereum)

(Prediction markets/forecasting)

Augur is a decentralized prediction market where users wager on the outcome of future events. There is plenty of research(1, 2) demonstrating the value of centralized markets as forecasting tools and Augur aims to address their shortcomings.

Check out the Beta to browse example markets and test the platform with play money. We’re unlikely to see a final product before the year’s end, but the team has been making steady progress since crowdfunding over $5 million last fall. Microsoft will be offering a solution for companies to run private markets through their Azure Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform.

TransActive Grid (Ethereum)

(Utilities/renewable energy)

TransActive Grid is allowing neighbors to purchase and sell renewable energy among each other, offering communities with microgrids a way to create a local energy market while reducing emissions and pollution.

This is enabled by attaching solar panels to computers that track and log the creation of energy onto Ethereum’s blockchain. The first implementation is being tested with participants of the Brooklyn City Microgrid project.

For details see recent features in The New Scientist, Vice, CleanTechnica, and the team’s video presentation.

Yours (Bitcoin)

(Content sharing/social media)

Yours is a decentralized content sharing application where users will earn money for their submissions. When you “endorse” (think Reddit upvote or Facebook like) a post, you send the author a small microtip from your account’s Bitcoin wallet. Endorsing a post also gives you the chance to be rewarded with a portion of the author’s following tips, this incentivizes the early support of quality content.

Zapchain is an existing site demonstrating demand for Bitcoin powered content monetization, and Medium is rolling out features that will allow authors to get paid. Here’s a very early stage demo of Yours.

“We’re going to enable anyone to get paid for the things they create, and allow the world as a whole to decide who deserves recognition, fame, and fortune.”

Slock.it (Ethereum)

(Internet of Things)

Slock.it GmbH is a German startup working on slocks; software based “smart locks” that can be controlled with a smart phone application. In their introductory video, you can see a glimpse of how they hope to disrupt the sharing economy, enabling the renting and selling of anything without a middleman.

Door slock(left/back), Ethereum computer prototype(left/front)

Microsoft will provide testing and integration tools for businesses through their Azure BaaS. “If your name is GE, Pearson or 3M — it’s the ideal way to get started — with a one-click deployment.”

Slock.it is also working with RWE (Germany’s second largest utilities provider) on a smart contract powered electric vehicle charging platform, BlockCharge. They recently showcased a working prototype and will be testing the technology with real vehicles and stations over the next year.

Slock.it’s most ambitious venture is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO), a company that lives on Ethereum’s blockchain whose rules are enforced by software. Imagine a “super-Kickstarter” which allowed backers to invest and become permanent stakeholders in projects instead of receiving one time rewards.

Anyone can become a shareholder in the DAO by purchasing tokens (with ether) in the upcoming token sale. Shareholders vote on the DAO’s business decisions and receive a portion of transaction fees whenever slocks are used. The DAO’s existence is supposed to ensure the slock network can continue operating even if Slock.it GmbH goes out of business.

Slock.it will submit a proposal to the DAO for development of the Ethereum computer, the device responsible for controlling slocks. If approved by shareholders, the DAO will pay Slock.it using the ether it raised during the token sale. There are nearly 3000 people in Slock.it’s rapidly growing Slack channel, many of them eagerly waiting to participate in the DAO experiment.