Braintrust Publicly Launches BTRST Token to Power the World's First Decentralized Talent Network

ZUG, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Braintrust, the first decentralized talent network that connects skilled, vetted knowledge workers with the world's leading enterprises, today publicly launched the BTRST token on the Ethereum mainnet, instantly generating tens of thousands of community owners of the Braintrust network. The network also announced the addition of new enterprise clients including Goldman Sachs, American Eagle Outfitters, Atlassian, Porsche, Under Armour, and Wayfair Inc.

How the world works has undergone a tectonic shift in the last 18 months, and it's impacting everyone. With digital transformation accelerating six years, enterprises must bring on skilled resources to grow and augment their teams as fast as possible. Simultaneously, knowledge workers have been empowered to forge their own paths as independent workers, dictating more freedom and control, with 75% stating they earn the same or more pay than they did as full time employees. The combination of massive technical talent demand and lucrative remote, independent, professional career paths is changing the trillion dollar IT industry. Using blockchain technology to power a new model that enables ownership, control, and freedom, Braintrust is leading the disruption.

"Braintrust's vision is to spread economic opportunity more equitably around the world," said Adam Jackson, Co-Founder of Braintrust. "Blockchain technology exists to remove the middleman, and Braintrust is using blockchain to take the power, control, and value that has sat with middlemen and redirect it back to our community--the people who actually create that value and deserve that control. By launching the BTRST token, we're taking another massive step forward in making that vision a reality, and reshaping who the owners are in our global economy."

The BTRST Token

The BTRST token powers the entire decentralized network's governance, incentivizing the talent community to build the network through referring clients and inviting and vetting new talent. It is being released with a fixed supply of 250 million, meaning the total number of tokens in circulation can never surpass that amount.

BTRST is foundational to the Braintrust network. Token holders can discuss ideas for improvements to the network, propose changes, and vote on change proposals. Because each token represents one vote, users who earn more tokens have greater say in how the network develops. The tokens are also expected to be redeemable for special perks offered by network participants that are exclusive to the Braintrust community, including free and discounted software, products, and career resources. Community members can also earn tokens by taking courses on Braintrust Academy, which teaches talent valuable skills to help them earn more on the network.

"Being part of Braintrust goes beyond getting connected with great projects," said Crystal Marcus-Kanesaka, a Braintrust talent community member and talent screener. "Braintrust is built on transparency, and defined by openness and trust. Everyone has equitable access to engage with the community and build the platform, playing our own part in the Braintrust mission. That's the magic of Braintrust for me."

Validating the Ownership Economy

Since coming out of stealth in June, 2020, Braintrust has grown Gross Services Volume (GSV) from $3.5 million in 2020 to a $31 million GSV run rate in 2021, growing over 34% on average each month. Braintrust's community has scaled its use, adoption and talent earnings, with 215% growth in the talent community and individual hourly rates for talent on the network averaging nearly $100 per hour--all without any fee extraction.

Braintrust's user-ownership has enabled a strong talent acquisition model built on BTRST, driving down talent acquisition costs to nearly zero while scaling demand rapidly. Today, almost 50% of Braintrust's new client acquisition and talent acquisition is driven by referral programs based on BTRST tokens. The combination of platform growth and community growth illustrates how Braintrust's unique tokenization model aligns the incentives of freelancers with the marketplace itself.

Driving Massive Enterprise Adoption

Braintrust's growth has been aided by large scale and long term changes in the global enterprise landscape. Enterprises everywhere must access top technical talent in order to remain relevant, and are increasingly interested in having those contributors be remote and decentralized. Enterprises like Goldman Sachs, American Eagle Outfitters, Atlassian, Porsche, Under Armour, and Wayfair Inc. are among hundreds of others who have found success hiring top independent contributors on the Braintrust network, and continue to add new roles. Since June of 2020, Braintrust's client community has more than tripled in size, while the average project size has grown to $57,000, with some as large as $300,000. In addition to project size, jobs on the platform have more than tripled in 2021.

"Nestlé is the world's leading nutrition, health, and wellness company," said Goran Kukic, Chief Innovation Technology Officer of Nestlé. "We are constantly working to not only deliver incredible nutrition and taste to our customers, but to create new, innovative experiences that make that delivery seamless and exceptional. What has made Braintrust such an incredible partner is its ability to deliver an almost real-time pool of decentralized, vetted, technical talent without friction or wasted cycles. It has been a difference maker for our business."

About Braintrust
Braintrust is the first decentralized talent network that connects skilled, vetted knowledge workers with the world's leading companies. The community that relies on Braintrust to find work are the same people who own and build it, ensuring the network always serves the needs of its users, instead of a centrally-controlled corporation. And because the community of knowledge workers and contributors earns ownership and control of Braintrust through its native BTRST token for its contributions to the network and its growth, new talent and jobs have participated in the network at record speeds.

Braintrust has over 50,000 community members, with knowledge workers and project contributors across the world. Braintrust is used by global enterprises including Nestlé, Porsche, Atlassian, Goldman Sachs, and Nike. For more information, visit: www.braintrust.com.

SOURCE Braintrust