As many of you may have seen in one of our previous posts, Latium has completed a refresh and brand image update recently. This is to keep in line with our long term vision, as well as ensure that our marketing and brand imagery is in parallel with these ideals moving forward. For more info, please see the previous post below:
https://medium.com/@support_23187/latium-a-refresh-and-re-design-e9d48e1641ea
We would like to take this opportunity to announce that the Beta release of Latium will be released on March 30th, later this week. Friday, the 30th of March, (US time zone) the Latium Beta will replace the alpha content, with the subdomain updating to beta.latium.org.
We have been hard at work on the platform and are very excited to unveil the platform for usage by our community as we continue to develop and progress towards daily use adoption.
One core tenet of our ideology here at Latium has remained from our inception, being that we do not see the value in over hyping a project before infrastructure is in place or likewise participating in vapid speculation. With that said, due to the concrete announcement above as well as the current state of the beta within our development builds, we have the pleasure of giving our community a sneak peak of some of the upcoming features, functionality and future of the Latium platform.
Initially, the funding of the alpha platform required the “Data Field” option for deposit, which limited methods and sources of inclusion. With the release of the beta platform, this will no longer remain necessary, allowing for a wider variety of deposit options from local, online and exchange sourced LATX holdings to be sent to the beta directly. We feel this will continue to evolve as a streamlined, more easily accessible method for token utilization within the Latium platform.
From initial login, the user experience is matched to our website redesign and displays a starkly contrasted, inviting user experience, as noted below.
Your first view of the available tasks to perform, while similar to the alpha, is again within the new UI structure and includes several new, exciting features, of which a few we will note here today.
One specific feature we would like to showcase is the Time to Complete feature. This has been greatly needed and requested directly from our community base and will see implementation during the beta environment. In short, it allows the employer to set a specified range that the user has to be able to complete the task. This will ensure that tasks are not left in limbo as we’ve seen occur within the alpha in the past.
With this option, the task creator can more effectively schedule out completion of possibly time sensitive tasks, while ensuring a more accurate and efficient process throughout.
One of the most anticipated features that users have requested by far was the chat functionality between employer and employee. Several different possibilities were thought out before our current in place architecture was integrated. Specifically, since this is not a social platform, but instead a task oriented portal, chats may only be opened through accepted applicants between the task creator and the individual that is accepted to work the task.
We truly believe that this feature will be influential on ensuring the flow of task creation and completion will remain smooth and in less peril of disputes between participants arising. We will be implementing it within the beta, as well as continuing to refine and consider updates to the process through future updates and production environments.
While we feel that the Alpha utilized its intended purpose quite well, specifically as a proof of concept and a relatively stable platform environment, We do realize, however, that multiple issues were possible regarding unresolved issues between task creator and applicants.
The entire workflow of a task has been extensively updated and advanced to ensure that the procedure in place between both parties is more flexible, as well as ensures methods are in place for resolution should one or the other become dormant.
The status of each contract is more fully featured, including the following: Applied, Awarded, Working, Overtime, Pay Status, and Complete. Some of these have sub statuses which are viewed as Offered by Employer or Requested by Employee depending on what side is currently active as well.
The first necessary option that has seen addition fixes the scenario where an employer accidentally accepts, or does so without proper vetting, and has need to place an applicant back to pending for further review.
With each status comes options for both participants to utilize in order to resolve the contract amicably without the need of mediator intervention.
For an Employee and Employer the following options are available for each status:
- Applied Status (Employee Only)- Withdraw Application: No effect on trust score
- Accepted Status – Cancel Application: Could negatively affect trust score
- Working Status – Mutual Cancellation: This option is available for the Employee or Employer to request a mutual cancellation of the contract. This can be sent for any reason and, if accepted by the the other party, it will allow both users to walk away as if the contract was not created. No effect is placed on trust score and all funds are unlocked and returned.
As noted, with the release of the Time to Complete feature, a new status has been implemented to the platform, referred to as Overtime Status. In this status, the contract time to complete has expired, without full work having been completed. Please note, once a worker has started the task timer, it may not be paused. Options at this time will be the following:
- Mutual Cancellation: A mutual cancellation option is available for both parties to agree to walk away and have no negative affect on either user’s trust score. We believe this will be better facilitated via the introduced chat function, giving both parties the option to discuss via chat, then likewise move towards mutual cancellation if need be.
- Second Chance: A Second Chance can be requested by the Employee or offered by the Employer. If the other party accepts the Second Chance, then the Employee has the full allotted time to complete the task again. The other party also has the ability to counter offer to this request.
Now we move to the Pay Status, which is specifically where the employee has marked the task complete and is awaiting payment from the employer. While Mutual Cancellation and Second Chance remain an option, two other requests become available as well:
- Reward Adjustment: Another possible scenario which can arise is one in which the employee could only complete part of the task before the time ran out. This would lend itself toward that of the request of a Reward Adjustment by the employee or an offer of one by the employer. The employee/employer can change the reward amount to whatever they wish, as long as it does not exceed the original reward amount. This is sent to the employee/employer, who may either accept or send a counter offer. This ability to negotiate allows and ensures both parties are able to come to a mutual agreement or cancellation throughout each step in the process.
- Cancellation Notice: This implementation was primarily utilized to combat unresponsive employees/employers. Within Pay status, an employee/employer will see the Cancellation Notice option grayed out at the bottom of their Contract Options. This has a clock counting down from 48 hours (begins once Pay status is reached). Once the 48 hours runs out, this option will become live and allow the employee or employer to send a cancellation notice. If the recipient of the Cancellation Notice does not act within another 48 hours, then the contract will be cancelled, and the employee/employer will have their bond/guaranty returned, be awarded the other party’s bond/guaranty, and will not have a negative impact on their score.
While this rather extensive update to the workflow may seen daunting at first, we feel that with increased use of the beta environment our user base will begin to better understand and utilize the tools within for a more efficient, positive experience surrounding task creation and completion.
Finally, in our efforts towards development transparency, we have decided to give an advanced look at an exciting, new feature not yet discussed in Telegram by staff. While certain elements are indeed mentioned in the future of our scheduled roadmap, we are pleased to announce that soon after beta, a patch release will enable an internal exchange of user to user transactions.
The initial release will enable the ability for offers to be placed for buying and selling set amounts of LATX for other paired currencies, similar in nature to that of OTC, or Over the Counter trades noted within various exchange platforms in existence today.
While traditional exchange discussions will remain ongoing, we feel and internal user to user option will not only showcase our long term vision for the platform, but also continue to exhibit the real world user element that is the true foundation of the Latium platform.
While Latium’s vision has always been to bring blockchain technologies to the gig economy markets, it has likewise always remained in parallel with our established goals to rectify many issues we see present in more traditional, online freelancing platforms. We feel these goals are more fully realized as we release these logical status and work flows and will continue to fine tune and develop the platform while remaining tuned in to our direct community feedback.
As Latium continues ongoing development efforts and preparations for marketing, we are incredibly excited to show our work to the community, as well as to the public in general via our upcoming Beta release. We thank you for your continued involvement with us and look forward to future feature updates and releases.
Thank you for your interest in the the Latium platform and associated utility token. As always you can follow us on Twitter and join our Telegram Chat and Discord for the latest news, updates and developments as we progress.
