Comment by UntitledNo4 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by UntitledNo4 | Hacker News Reader

I had a quick look at the jobs offered on the website and I found those as example: WordPress template: budget 12 BTC (~115EUR?) PHP: add more currencies to BT converter site: budget 5BTC(~50EUR?) DE to EN translation: 3BTC (~30EUR?) (conversions are very inaccurate, I just wanted to get an idea)

My question is: is there something about Bitcoin that I am missing that would entice people to work for such low rates? If someone came up to me and asked me to do any of those jobs for those EUR rates, I would decline unless they are either very good customers of mine or I really fancied them.

This is a serious question, not criticism. I'd like to know whether there is an allure to Bitcoin that I'm completely missing that would make people agree to work for less "real" (i.e. not-Bitcoin) money.

Thank you.

If you look at similar platforms based on "real" money (as you put it), you will see these are actually relatively high budgets for these projects. Take a look through the projects over on odesk and weep: https://www.odesk.com

Given that though, yes there is an allure to bitcoin. Many people believe they will be worth more in future, so may willing to work for lower rates in order to get some and participate in the "bitcoin economy".

Yes, I know the rates in USD/GBP/EUR, and that's why I was asking. I had a quick look at odesk and the rates are lower than I would normally charge myself for the things that I do.

That's what made me curious, but your answer makes a point, but then it means people are taking a punt on the Bitcoin.

This is the nature of these online job arbitration sites. Everyone who wants a project done is dreaming of some foreigner who can live very well on $1/day (as if that were related to value of their work) and will produce code as good as professionals from their country. Some of the older sites are much worse. When I saw your examples I thought you were going to complain that it was too expensive!

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