R_Block’s vision is to create an ecosystem in which workers can easily own, manage and monetize their proven skills and experience data. R_Block will be a decentralised CV/Reference network, bringing references and proven skills into a CV. For the first time ever, workers are able to own their reference data and monetise it through C.v tokens. Our unique solution to the problem in referencing will be the framework for a tokenized careers ecosystem. Then become a self-sovereign identity management technology. The employment history data itself will become a core part of identity verification. Every Worker has an employment ‘digital fingerprint’ which can be used to uniquely identify them. Years of credibility and performance proof is a powerful identity claim, like no other. Synthesized by reference data in the R_Block network.Blockchain Based Referencing
MISSIONTo transform R_Block into the world’s first skills ledger & careers ecosystem. Establishing Workers as the rightful owner & controller of their Reference data. To become the industry standard for proof of employment history & performance across careers and beyond. Utilising Web 3.0 to create a proof of credibility & long term performance identity claim compatible with ERC725.
PROBLEMReferences supplied by an ex-colleague, are the most reliable way to authenticate a worker's’ competency. They are the most reliable long-term performance indicator. Ten years ago References were the primary measure for gauging Workers’ competency, today References have lost their rightful and inherent importance. What’s changed?
TRUST.In 2017 we’re less willing to share data without incentive. We’ve been bombarded with spam and experienced our personal data being misused for too long. Hiring is £400 billion market. The popular centralised recruitment platforms naturally look after the parties that pay their bills - recruiters.
The balance is off, frustration is at an all time high and the knock on effect is a decline in use for recruiters too. Referencing is a primary example how data is being abused. It’s more often used by Recruiters for sales-leads rather than for verifying competency. Frequently, a Recruiter says that they need to collect upfront References from a Worker. In reality this isn’t true, the Recruiter uses the contact information for pitching business.
This kind of misuse has led to scepticism about sharing personal data [12]. The abuse of Worker information has diluted the trust in the Referencing & hiring in general. Furthermore, red-tape has muddied the water on what can be shared. Which unduly deters Workers from utilising the powerful tool. Lack of knowledge & tangible incentive has contributed to Referees becoming tight-lipped over supplying useful information.
In 2010, 75% of employers would Reference Workers for technical jobs, but today only 25% of employers take References [5]. What has broken this tool?
DATA ABUSE.Referencing used to be the best tool for companies to establish Workers’ competency. Now Referencing is just a validation check to back up decisions that have already been made, simply to check there are no ‘skeletons in the closet’.
TOOL BECAME CHECK.Like the centralised platforms, referencing doesn’t help Workers - checks at the latter stages of the recruitment process can only impact them negatively. After years of duplicitous requests, Workers are now less willing to share their Referees. Referees are less willing to provide detailed References due to lack of incentive. We’ve reached a stalemate.
Referencing is now usually only conducted after a Worker has been offered a role, which has relegated Referencing from being a competency evaluation tool into a last-minute sanity check. Hence, we now have the phrase “reference check”.
R_BLOCK SOLUTIONHeadline: We have built a unique SaaS tool which seamlessly integrates into the hiring process to rejuvenate referencing. This tool is the unfair advantage R_Block has to attract users to build out our tokenized careers network.
1. Tokenisation allows R_Block to put the right incentives in place for Referees to share quality reference data.
2. R_Block empowers workers by giving them the opportunity to own this data and monetise it. By becoming searchable & contactable.
Only once this network has been proven can we realise our vision of becoming a identity proof relied upon for high level identity claims.
this announcement thread will updated with more information.
