Talao simply stands for Talent plus DAO. A short description of the Talao project would be to say that Talao empowers Talent. In short, Talao provides Talent with their own freelancing marketplace together with a technical solution to manage their professional reputation on a public and distributed ledger. No more Upwork, Toptal or Freelancer.com proprietary solutions that take high fees and lock in client ratings, and no more middlemen. Talao is purely Client and Talent, face to face. And the TALAO token is the key enabler to this ecosystem.

The TALAO Token is a utility token and ERC20 compliant. It is required to access marketplace services, to participate in DAO processes and to manage the Reputation Vault. It has 2 types of usage. Tokens are either stacked as deposits (protocol stacking function) or transferred from client wallets to talents’ or community wallets (protocol transactional function).

TALAO token deposits to participate in the community (DAO). One needs to stack tokens in order to raise an objection, ask for mediation, write proposals or vote. All of these features require a deposit to prevent bad behaviour within communities. Bad behaviours are typically useless proposals, scamming, fraud, etc.

One needs to stack tokens in order to raise an objection, ask for mediation, write proposals or vote. All of these features require a deposit to prevent bad behaviour within communities. Bad behaviours are typically useless proposals, scamming, fraud, etc. TALAO token deposits to open a Reputation Vault. A predefined amount of tokens is then stacked by talent as a deposit. If a talent member leaves and closes his/her Reputation Vault, tokens are transferred back to the talent wallet. Talent is effectively the true owner of his/her vault.

A predefined amount of tokens is then stacked by talent as a deposit. If a talent member leaves and closes his/her Reputation Vault, tokens are transferred back to the talent wallet. Talent is effectively the true owner of his/her vault. TALAO tokens to buy premium services. With tokens clients can for instance buy screening services, urgent request rankings, conflict settlement procedures or access a single talent Reputation Vault. Tokens are then transferred from client wallets to communities’ wallets or talent (or agent) wallets.

With tokens clients can for instance buy screening services, urgent request rankings, conflict settlement procedures or access a single talent Reputation Vault. Tokens are then transferred from client wallets to communities’ wallets or talent (or agent) wallets. TALAO token used for Gross Payment Volume (GPV). Clients can pay talent for their work with TALAO tokens although we believe fiat currencies will remain the main media of payment. The Gross Payment Volume GPV is the standard indicator to measure the total business supported by one marketplace.

Thoughts on the economics of the TALAO Token

The approach presented here does not pretend to be a complete economic model of TALAO token usage. It should be read as a pragmatic way to provide some forward looking numbers. We understand these numbers are open to criticism, but at a minimum, they give guidance to future token holders in making their own evaluations.

Currency in circulation is estimated via a basic equation of exchange MV = PQ, where:

M = size of the currency base in USD (token supply x Exchange rate)

V = velocity of the currency (token)

P = price of services or assets concerned in USD

Q = quantity of services or assets concerned

Token velocity is the number of times a token is exchanged over a period of 1 year. Our assumption is a velocity of 20 for transactional activities, and therefore the exchange equation is M=PQ/20. Stacking functions have for calculation purposes a 1 velocity number. Speculative holdings are not considered as part of the ecosystem monetary base.

Our framework is a 5-year plan in which to develop Talao as a key player in the cloud economy, targeting 5 million users. The initial assumption of the average marketplace business, per talent, per year, is 200 USD, and assumed to be above average numbers in the industry. The main reason being that Ethereum transaction costs will be perceived as a barrier for low cost applicants.

The TALAO Token is designed to be used in different ways. In the following section we provide an estimate of the monetary base for each use case.

Taking into account the stacking functions of the protocol, the average global velocity is very low and estimated to be 2,73. The Talao protocol has two major stacking functions; as a deposit for DAO involvement and as a deposit to open a Reputation Vault. When users receive tokens or buy tokens they have incentives to hold them, velocity decreases and the token price increases.

Assuming the marketplace is successful, within 5 years we predict the Talao monetary ecosystem to grow to about 165 mUSD, excluding speculative holdings and other not accounted for functionalities. We will not provide any assumptions for the in-between period from ICO to the end of our 5-year plan. As the TALAO coin offering is to be split into 2 rounds, we expect the token price to increase simultaneously with user adoption.

The token dynamic looks like the sum of a linear function of the number of marketplace talent members with the addition of a linear function of the number of Reputation Vault owners regardless of the marketplace or job boards they work with.

TALAO token specific functions for Reputation Vault management

The TALAO Token is an ERC20 token with a set of specific functions. As the functions are included within the token smart contract, one may consider the token to be a trusted third party for both client and talent to establish a relationship. This specificity allows the use of the Vault and DAO functionalities, whatever the platform (marketplace, job board, social media…).

· function createVaultAccess (uint256 myprice) public: Any Talent member can provide access to his/her Reputation Vault through his/her Ethereum address. This function allows talent to set up a token price for this access. A token deposit is withdrawn from the Talent account.

· function closeVaultAccess () public: Talent can leave the community and close his/her vault. TALAO tokens are transferred back to the talent wallet.

· function agentApproval (address newagent, uint newsharingplan): Talent can choose an agent. The agent has access to the talent Reputation Vault. The agent is authorized to receive tokens from the client on behalf of the talent member according to a sharing plan. A talent member may only have one agent at a time.

· function setVaultDeposit (uint newdeposit) onlyOwner public returns (uint): The Marketplace owner can set the amount of TALAO tokens needed to open a Reputation Vault.

· function getVaultAccess (address talent) public returns (bool): This function provides clients with unlimited access to the talent Reputation Vault through the talent Ethereum address. If a price has been set up, TALAO tokens are transferred from the client token balance to the talent (or agent) token balance. If talent has an approved agent, tokens are transferred to the agent address according to the sharing plan.

The TALAO token is a real utility token, with both transactional and stacking functions. It can be used as a mean of payment, even if this is not its main feature. The functions written in the token smart contract to manage a Reputation Vault make it very specific as it can be fully associated with talent data. Clients or employers just need a talent Ethereum address to gain instant access to their professional certificates. The agent feature is an optional feature in which to provide revenue streams to job boards or marketplaces, while bearing in mind that talent is always in control of this access.

You can find a complete description of the Talao project here and join our Telegram Talao Community.

Thierry Thevenet, Co-founder @Talao