BWORKs - Smart contract HR platform

[IMPACT]

Current job market status 

• Cost of traditional hiring is high - estimated $4000 for a developer. 
• High rate of failed projects due to HR resource and budget problems - estimated 60%.
• 70% of asked employers said they don't really trusted in resumes & linkedIn.
• Less commitment of product delivery and payment especially in cross countries.
• There is no freelancer platform that cares for the full process until freelancer's is completed.
• Switching from a fixed employee to remote work & freelancer is a big trend.

These problems show the huge need of having an efficient freelance HR platform. This is why bWorks was formed. 

Introduction

bWorks is a new freelance HR application running on top of Cardano network that utilizes the power of smart contract plus its own algorithm to fulfill its mission. 

It has two responsibilities:

• Find right freelancers for an employer's posted job, right jobs for a job seeker.
• Manage until freelancer's work is finished then transfer or refund the money. If the work is successful then money is transferred to the freelancer's account otherwise it will be refunded to the employer's account.

An example

Someone is a non-technical person he got fund from Catalyst and wish to have a developer to fulfill their project:

• He doesn't even know how to check if a developer is capable of working out the project so freelancer.com and linkedin.com are not a choice.
• He wishes to make sure the money is paid only when the product is built and delivered.

Also there is a developer who is capable to work out project but:

• He doesn't have linkedIn or resume, he needs a job with less time for interviews, submitting a resume, and code challenges. 
• He wants to make sure his work is paid 100% even in cross countries before he starts to work.

bWorks is to solve above problems, proposer then has product delivered, never lose money for uncompleted work & developer has money for their work, the payment is always committed by smart contract.

Features

• High Accuracy of job selection for developers and bid selection for employers.
• Seamless service to cover all aspects of a freelance hiring process from job post until job is complete.
• Users have to verify its ADA wallet which is used for all payment transactions.
• Payment and delivery are executed through Cardano Escrow smart contract.
• No personal information is kept this to keep bWorks as a no Bias platform.

Users

• The employers who need freelancer for their project
• The Job seekers who are looking for a job. 

Main functions

• Post job for employer and bid job for job seeker.
• Realtime suggests matched jobs for job seekers and matched bids for employers.
• Select matched jobs for job seekers and matched bids for employers.
• Negotiate and submit terms to a deployed smart contract on Cardano network.
• A deployed smart contract then rules the process of job completion delivery and money is transferred.
• Actionable and insight reports for employers, job seekers.

Typical workflow

1. Employer post a job to seek freelancers for their project
2. bWorks finds the matched job seekers then suggests the job.
3. Job seekers place a bid to the posted job.
4. bWorks suggests the top ranked bids to employers.
5. Employer selects the right bids then negotiates the contract terms with the job seeker.
6. Submit finalized terms to a deployed contract on Cardano network.
7. If the job seeker succeeded at work the money will transfer to the job seeker, otherwise it will be refunded to the employer. This is executed by smart contract.

Architecture & main modules

bWorks contains off-chain code runs on AWS infrastructure and on-chain code runs on Cardano blockchain network.

The architecture includes backend REST APIs, 03 web frontend apps, 02 smartphone apps and the deployed smart contract on Cardano:

• Backend REST APIs & smart contract off-chain code.
• The deployed smart contracts on Cardano blockchain network.
• Frontend apps for:
• Employer
• Job seeker
• Admin
• Mobile apps for employers and job seekers.

Project tech stack: NodeJs, React and React native, MongoDb, Redis, Plutus and MarloweJs 

Impact to users

• bWorks will simplify the hiring process and help employers and job seekers focus on work.
• Remove all bias to give an equal opportunity to everyone to spark new ideas and have paid jobs.
• With the power of smart contract It ultimately solves problems which http://freelancer.com, http://linkedin.com and HR person are impossible to do.

Impact to catalyst project and Cardano users

• Anyone technical or non-technical people is able to become a proposer for their idea with backed developers on bWorks.
• Any developer is able to have PAID JOBs and be guided to become a more valuable developer.
• Create loyalty and grow developer resources for Cardano and beyond.
• Proposers are easy to have on demand developer resources with limited budgets to fulfill their project.

Direct or indirect bWorks's success will benefit proposers, developers, community people or ADA holders.

Project resource URLs

Present with updated content: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zlpmu2VrCYxaAlg_LW_HNIJ4cQINc0OBb3PtMdgQyeQ/edit?usp=sharing

Home page: https://bworks.app

Github: https://github.com/adaboys/bWorks

Please see attached images and full present for detail.

Attract new users, become a profitable, busy application and generates high amount of value 

The internet report say:

• 14% of companies and 62% of staff are switching to the remote and freelancer world model.
• Freelancers represent about 36% of the global workforce in 2020.
• 91% of freelancers say the best days are ahead for freelancing. 
• Freelance job postings rose by 41% during the second quarter of 2020
• Upwork has over 17 million users. Freelancer has over 30 million users. 

This report showed the huge demand of quality seamless freelancer services, by providing unparalleled features that solve most toughest problems for employers and job seekers bWorks expects to attract a large number of freelancers and employers to become its users. This lead bWorks becomes a profitable application, generating a high amount of value.

Utilize the power of Cardano Escrow smart contracts

Cardano escrow smart contract is the heart of bWorks to rule all freelance job contracts. This to ensure the commitment of task completion from job seeker and fund transfer from employer. Once the task is not completed in time the money will be refunded to the employer.

This will lead bWorks's success result a large number of Cardano wallet submission, activity and smart contract transactions.

Apply to Catalyst project

The Catalyst project has been home for Cardano applications, proposers and developers. Apply bWorks to Catalyst community can result out:

• Solve the lack of Cardano developer resources for proposers by providing on demand HR solutions for their projects.
• Enable everyone to spark new idea to become a proposer got fund then become a business owner 
• Grow Cardano developer resources in terms of quantity and abilities. 

By its features bWorks will expect to unblock catalyst's potential by transforming more ideas to products, This will result in massive new applications that build on top of Cardano.

By combining a matching algorithm and the power of Cardano Escrow smart contract to ultimately solve toughest problems of the current job market and create new values bWorks highly reflect Challenge KPIs.

Marketing strategy

We believe help peopl solving tough problems and create value is best way to promote product so we focus to build bWorks to meet its defined expectations are our effort to market.

Help proposers and Cardano developers in Catalyst Project have the right freelancer and have the right jobs are the product's value. This is our first focus marketing strategy.

Communicate out the values

bWorks's mission is to connect employers and job seekers, protect both employer and job seeker from the risk of commitment. The values of this mission should communicate out:

• The accuracy of suggestion function to offer a job to job seekers and a bid to the employer.
• The commitment of delivery and payment through smart contracts.
• Encourage non-technical people to become a proposer with their idea at Catalyst project.
• Encourage a developer to own the challenged jobs and get it done at the Catalyst project.

Marketing channels

• Real customer to new customer through Catalyst and other Cardano communities.
• Public social channels: twitter, facebook, telegram, newspapers and website.

Risks in development phase

Risk: Lack of Cardano smart contract resources for developers include documents, libraries.

Solution: Pay more attention to research and select the right development strategy.

Risk: The limitation of Cardano smart contract to execute the complex payment model.

Solution: have reasonable expectations at the first release.

Risk: Lack of budget leads to lack of developer resources.

Solution: do more with less, have proper priorities and expectations.

Risks in service delivery phase

Risk: Stability of the system at first launch.

Solution: perform detailed benchmark tests to address the problems that need to be solved to confirm the system is good to go.

Risk: Less data to rate job seeker's ability for a posted job may lead to low accuracy of suggestion functions.

Solution: This problem may be solved by other methods like MCQ, code challenges, we should not expect perfection at this time.

Risk: Less users submission for a new application leads to a limit of bis suggestion to employers.

Solution: This could be solved by a marketing strategy stated in the above section in this proposal.

[FEASIBILITY]

Q2-2022

Project planning and POC (proof of concept)

• Project outline, break down project into workable tasks and member assignments.
• Setup development environment: gitHub, staging server.
• Define detailed system architecture and select technologies.
• Develop POC to verify main logics and concepts.
• Expect the project to be funded and start development.

The countable outputs of this period are:

• Developers are proficient and have the right technologies, libraries, and framework for the project.
• Got design patterns for each domain e.g backend, front end and Cardano smart contract.
• POC worked to verify the possibilities of solutions.

Q3-2022

Develop project components:

•  Algorithm to select posted jobs for a job seeker, select bids for an employer.
•  Database schema, background jobs and data aggregation scripts.
•  Backend REST API and logics for employer, job seeker, CMS admin functions and smart contract integration with Cardano blockchain network.
•  UI/UX, frontend application for employer, job seeker and CMS admin.

The countable outputs of this period are:

• Given a set of job seeker data it selects the right job seeker to offer a job, given a list of bids, it is ranked then offers the employer the matched ones.
• The design schema should be clear, easy and low latency to aggregate.
• The API endpoints return exact data, perform logic exactly for fetch action like GET, POST for all main logics across employer, job seeker and CMS functions.
• The Deployed smart contract on testNet performs exactly the transfer and refund logics reflect the result of freelancer's work.
• Frontend application has good UI flow, simple, beautiful, need less of user actions. Fetch APIs and render functions are working right.

Q4-2022

Develop project components:

• On-chain Cardano escrow smart contract to handle freelance contract between employer and job seeker.
• Off-chain code to call deployed contract on Cardano.
• Functional and integration test for each component and rebuild if needed.
• Integrate test full application flow.

The countable outputs of this period are:

• The deployed smart contract on testNet performs exactly the transfer and refund logics reflect the result of freelancer's work.
• Frontend application has good UI flow, simple, beautiful, need less of user actions. Fetch APIs and render functions are working right.

Verify the working of application to meet designs and project KPIs:

• Post job function for employer: employer is able to post a job.
• Bid job function for job seeker: Job seeker is able to bid a posted job.
• Job selection for job seeker, bid selection for employer: algorithm select right job for job seeker, right bid for employer and let them meet.
• Smart contract negotiation: employer and job seeker are able to negotiate contract terms before submit.
• Smart contract submission: application is able to call the deployed smart contract on Cardano network.
• Application architecture has clear design, runs fast and stable.
• Code is clean, easy to maintain, extend.

Expect all functions are working properly as designed.

Deploy off-chain code to AWS infrastructure, on-chain code to Cardano network and make sure it is ready to go, the product then is available for everyone to use with enough documents.

Q1-2023

Beta release and go to market

Select 10 Catalyst proposers to invite as employer user, 10 Cardano developer to invite as job seeker as pilot users to try product and give feedback. The feedback should contain:

• How post job and select bid functions work for employer
• How job selection and bid functions work for job seekers.
• How the smart contract handles the negotiated terms and can it make sure the posted job is done for the employer & the fund is transferred to the job seeker only when the posted job is done.

Once we have good feedback from pilot users it is time to publish product marketing to a massive amount of users, groups.

The estimated cost is counted by the number of work hours need to complete a task or a job with different prices:

• 30$/hour for backend, database, smartphone app development.
• 40$/hour for smart contract development.
• 25$/hour for frontend app development.
• 20$/hour for QA/QC work.

Software development cost: 62.120$

• Backend API
• Common APIs & logics (ACL, libraries, algorithms): 150 hours
• Employer APIs: 140 hours
• Job seeker APIs: 150 hours
• CMS APIs: 130 hours

Cost of backend API development: 570 hours * 30 $/hour = 17.100$

(02 engineers work in 06 months)

• Database design
• Schema modeling: 140 hours
• Data aggregation scripts: 120 hours

Cost of database design: 260 hours * 30 $/hour = 7.800$

(02 engineers work in 06 months)

• Smart contract
• Off-chain code: 100 hours
• On-chain code: 172 hours

Cost of smart contract development: 272 hours * 40$/hour = 11.880$

(02 engineers work in 03 months)

• Frontend web apps
• Employer app: 180 hours
• Job seeker app: 180 hours
• appCMS app: 140 hours

Cost of frontend apps development: 500 hours * 25 $/hour = 12.500$

• IOS and android apps
• Employer IOS & Android apps: 160 hours
• Job seeker IOS & Android apps: 160 hours

Cost of IOS and android apps development: 320 hours * 30 $/hour = 9.600$

(02 engineers work in 06 months)

• QA/QC
• Backend API: 52 hours
• Frontend apps: 48 hours
• Smartphone apps: 40 hours
• Smart contract: 40 hours
• Integration and load benchmark: 32 hours

Cost of QA/QC work: 212 hours * 20 $/hour = 4.240$

(02 QA/QC work in 06 months)

AWS Infrastructure cost: 2.880$

(03 T2 small server 80 $/month 12 months. This cost will pay to Amazon AWS)

Beta launch: 1.500$

(system provisioning, deployment and security benchmark 03 engineers in 02 days)

Project management cost: 4.500$

(1 person at 500$/month in 09 months)

Total cost of project to request: 71.000$ - seventy one thousand dollars.

Thang Tran

Practical blockchain engineer, software expert, blockchain enthusiasm, fan of Cardano technologies.

Experiences: Design & develop software at all levels. Long track experiences with high volume, high availability critical mission systems. More than 04 years as a blockchain engineer. Experienced with Cardano general technologies, Plutus, Marlowe, smart contract, tokens and more.

Project responsibilities: Product design. Engineering management. Main full stack & blockchain engineer.

Contact:

• Telegram: https://t.me/ThangTranNam
• Github: https://github.com/saigonbitmaster

Duc Tiger

Investor, ADA lover, running one of largest Cardano community groups in Vietnam.

Experiences: Business owner, digital marketing, community management, data analysis. Experienced with Cardano economic model. Full time working and well understanding the Catalyst project.

Project responsibilities: Product features, marketing management, finance management, community influencer.

Contact:

• Telegram: https://t.me/DucTIGERpool
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/DucTIGER

Trong Nguyen

Software and cloud engineer, Cardano's fan.

Experience: a software engineer and IT specialist who worked for many big IT tech firms in Japan such as GNT, ISFNet, and IBM. Experienced in software product management, digital content with 10 years of mobile app development for Android and IOS. Experienced with Cardano technologies.

Responsibilities: Product and project management, Digital content, Project Management, Software engineer.

Contact:

• Telegram: https://t.me/alex_trongnguyen
• Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trong-nguyen-4092b568

Toan Nguyen

Senior full stack & blockchain engineer

Experience: 8 years of experience with software and blockchain development, capable to implement software at at all levels, run high volume products.

Responsibilities: Backend & APIs leader - APIs, blockchain & full stack.

Contact:

• Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tritoan
• GitHub: https://github.com/anytool

Thanh Nguyen

Senior full stack engineer

Experience: more than 8 years of experience with software development backend, frontend and mobile apps.

Responsibilities: Frontend and mobile apps leader - Frontend, mobile development & full stack.

Contact:

• Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/congthanh-nguyen-b152361a0
• GitHub: https://github.com/makotovnjp

Oanh Ngo

Experience: more than 8 years experience of QA/QC leader.

Responsibilities: QA/QC leader, develop test scripts.

Contact:

• Linked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oanh-ngo-06b331100

And other resources from AdaBoys Lab: https://github.com/adaboys

[AUDITABILITY]

The progress and development process are measured and tracked by the number of "DONE" tasks & "DONE" groups of required tasks which define other large work or application development are developed, tested.

Clear and trackable development progress

• Use TDD method for development process.
• Project will break down into small tasks then assigned to each member via Redmine (a project management software).
• Write UNIT test code in advance before developers start product development.
• The task is confirmed to be completed only when the UNIT test result “PASSED”.
• Use Github auto deploy to push the latest code to the staging server to make the development product be available to everyone.
• Weekly report that lets everyone be aware of the whole process. 

Quantitative indicators for development process are:

• The number of task/function “PASSED” unit test code.
• The number of benchmark and QC tests “PASSED” for end user functions.
• The number of gitHub commits and merges.
• The number of tasks gets “DONE” in redMine.

The development success consideration

• 100% main tasks are "done"
• 100% unit test for main task is "passed"

By this way the progress is clear, measured and tracked. 

Please see detail at breakdown tasks success KPIs or our present at the attached link.

The success of project from product development points of view

• Main software components are developed and tested: 100%
• Extra aspects & extra software components are developed and tested: 70%-100%
• System operations KPIs: 70%-100%
• Product is published and available to users: 100%
• Extra factors of product delivery: 70%-100%

The success of project from business points of view

• Application then has a large number of submitted DAU users.
• Application becomes a popular, profitable platform and has huge transactions through its smart contracts.
• Number of submitted and DAU users: we expect to attract around 60% of catalyst users, 40% of other Cardano users and around 100k external users total 200-500k will be Bworks users in first year after release: 80%-100%

The definition of success From user points of view

• Suggest right job for job seekers right bid for employer
• The deployed smart contract runs smoothly: transfer money to job seeker after they complete the job, refund employer when the posted job is not fulfilled.
• Rate of user that satisfied with service from product: 70%

To meet above goals we must accomplish the below success KPIs across development and delivery phases:

Success KPIs of main software components development

• The accomplishment of function and component development: functions, components, scripts are developed and tested in terms of quantity and functionality: 100% they are developed and tested. e.g: UI for employer to post job, UI for job seeker to bid job, the smart contract is executed as expected. 
• The accomplishment of whole product development: all sub-components are developed and tested. Full application is formed, tested and meets designs: 100%.

Product on staging server is available for employer to post a job, for job seeker to bid a job and smart contract runs smoothly to manage freelance progress until freelancer get job done and fund is transferred to its account.

Success KPIs of extra software components & aspects

• Code quality and visibility: source code is clear, easy to re-use and maintain: 80%-100%.
• BI reports are valuable to users: 80%
• All code is public at registered Github link that available for other people to view, improve or re-use: 100%

Success KPIs of product delivery

• Product is released as scheduled timeline, available for everyone to use at public url through the internet: 100% e.g The released product will be available at: https://bworks.app 
• Main functions are available for users to use: 100% - employers and job seekers are able to submit an account to find freelancers and find a job. The deployed smart contract then rule the rest of progress.

Success KPIs of system operation (ms is millisecond)

• System uptime: 99.9%
• Basic access latency: 20-50ms depend on your internet connection: 100%
• Post job for employer, bid job for job seeker latency: 10-20 ms, realtime.
• Find a matched job for a developer latency: 10ms.
• Find a matched bid for an employer latency: 10ms.
• Freelance contract terms negotiation: instanced and realtime.
• Submit smart contract to Cardano blockchain network latency: 50-1000 ms depend on Cardano network.
• Security:  100% unwanted access is dropped and all data is safe.

References

1. Success criteria: success KPI >=70%. KPI >=70% means a task is done (function is developed & tested or work met expectations), the rest 30% used for outstanding assessments for factors that surpass success criteria. e.g a develop an API task has KPI 80% means it is DONE and code runs faster than expected.
2. The meaning of numbers in % indicate the percentage of completion of task use in success KPIs:

• 0%-70%: the task is not completed, it is 'on-working'.
• 70%-80%: task is completed & tested or work is done, good to go.
• 80%-100%: task is completed and has excellent output e.g response time faster than expected.

We expect to meet above KPIs that clearly define BWORK as a successful project.

See our visual and detail success KPIs at the attached present link

This proposal is a part of our focused efforts to adopt Cardano technologies in to true life.

The first proposal that we have been funded in the Fund7 is cPAY - TrustOrder Anti SpamOrder.

In this fund-8, we are submitting some more proposals that utilize the power of blockchain and smart contract to solve some existing toughest problems & create new values across some domains:

• cReport - Catalyst analyzer & KPIs
• cBilling - Cardano Billing DApp
• BWORKs - Smart contract HR platform
• BWORKs - Right Dev in Right Work
• BWORKs - Pay As Done Works Platform (this proposal)

Your vote for us is a hand to help solving problems for human life, creating more value for the better world.

Let's "VOTE" for us.

Thank you and kind regards.

SDG Rating

Not at all