When freelancing marketplace Moonlighting revealed that it was migrating to the blockchain, bringing its 750,000 users with it, the news was greeted enthusiastically in crypto quarters. The prospect of having three-quarters of a million people introduced to crypto assets presents a significant coup for proponents of all things blockchain. EOS wasn’t the only winner from Moonlighting’s move; however, a blockchain scalability startup called LiquidApps will also directly benefit. Its proprietary DAPP Network will be instrumental in keeping Moonlighting’s vRAM costs to a minimum on EOS.
Moonlighting Moves House
Moonlighting.com boasts 750,000 freelancers and growing, making it one of the largest freelancing jobs sites in the world. In April, the platform generated headlines when it announced that it would be taking up residency on the EOS blockchain. At the time, Moonlighting CEO Jeff Tennery spoke glowingly about the low transaction costs and ease of account management that are EOSIO hallmarks. Despite these attributes, operating a business – especially one as large as Moonlighting – on a blockchain network is not without its costs.
In the case of EOS, those costs are largely borne in the form of three-quarters – virtual storage which dApp developers must pay for. Due to limitations on the resources available on the network, high volume dApps can incur significant storage costs. There are a number of ways to mitigate this, and in LiquidApps, Moonlighting believes it has found a solution. The DAPP Network makes it cheaper and more efficient to create scalable applications on EOS. Its vRAM alternative storage solution mimics that provided by EOS, but with off-chain processing to keep costs to a minimum.
EOS VC Onboards the Big Shots
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Moonlighting’s move to EOS was sealed by Block.one, architects of EOSIO and joint investors in the EOS VC fund, in conjunction with FinLab AG. The investment fund seeks out businesses of merit that are either innovating on EOS or considering moving their business to EOS. In Moonlighting, it believes it has found the perfect partner, whose core operations can benefit from the sort of services EOS provides. The ability to get paid quickly and at low cost, anywhere in the world, is extremely powerful in the global jobs’ marketplace.
As part of the deal, EOS VC has obtained an equity stake in Moonlighting. In a video released September 5, Moonlighting’s Ritesh Johar confirmed that the onboarding process had been successfully completed. Bringing existing businesses to the blockchain, rather than trying to grow successful blockchain-specific ventures from scratch, is now widely regarded as the more effective way to bootstrap a major crypto network.
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This formula, favored by EOS, has since been emulated by blockchains such as Hedera Hashgraph. The much-hyped decentralized network will launch this week with the support of a string of major names including Boeing and IBM. Through securing enterprise support from day one, Hedera’s architects hope to demonstrate that the nascent chain is capable of competing with the bigshots, including EOS, as well as IBM’s own Hyperledger and R3’s Corda.
