Most of the companies operating in the blockchain industry tend to pay their employees in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, but BTC is without a doubt the favourite among the workers.
Usually, it’s expected from the company, if it’s a crypto company making its own coin, to pay their employees in their local coin, but entities in various industries are also starting to adopt this payment method and it’s been working out quite well.
The most easy-to-please employees with this payment option are the tech-related positions, where people have much better understandings on how the blockchain works.
Most of the payments are for freelancers
Companies like Wagepoint are an example of how blockchain can act as an outsourcing tool for company payrolls. Many Canadian and US-based companies have registered with Wagepoint to have their salaries processed in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Most of the payments are made to freelancers that prefer to have their funds available immediately after the transfer. This is due to other payment methods like PayPal taking way too long.
Although it’s possible to buy Bitcoin through PayPal nowadays, the employees prefer to have the asset transacted to them straight away in order to avoid any unnecessary fees and complications with the platforms.
Why are crypto salaries so attractive?
Most people see the value in cryptocurrency, more than they see it in regular fiat currencies. Therefore, for them, receiving payment in crypto like BTC is pretty much like being paid twice the amount that was agreed upon.
For most, it turned out to be a success in early 2017, but for those that were paid in late 2017, it was a disaster.
The most recent case of benefiting from Bitcoin salaries was this year, just a month ago, when BTC grew by nearly 200% within a week or two.
Much like the investment part of Bitcoin, being paid by it is a high risk, high reward type of game.
Companies that pay employees in Bitcoin
The most prominent case of a company paying its employees in cryptocurrency is Spot.IM which is a company offering web app conversions into mobile apps.
The company’s reason for offering BTC payments was that extra taxes are avoided and that the employees love it.
However, that is now in the past as Israel, the country where Spot.IM is based has passed a crypto capital gain tax, which makes the employees pay 25% of their salaries. Nevertheless, it’s still an attractive offer just because it has so much potential to grow.
Other examples are any ICO you’ve ever heard of. It was not uncommon to see employees and co-founders be paid in their local currencies. In most cases, it was expected that they would hold onto their assets, but the overwhelming majority used to simply convert into BTC and cash out immediately.
Overall, Bitcoin payments were popular at one point in time, when the market was down, but after a major rise in price, they become far less attractive due to the risk of a major fall.
