Stephen Gerrits works at SharpRank part-time for approximately eight to ten hours a week and gets compensated in bitcoins. His scope involves convincing people to download the company’s sports app on their phones and getting paid per download.
He claims that due to price appreciation, he has probably made the same or more in crypto than he would have in cash, but he is unsure due to the significant volatility in crypto’s value.
Gerrits said of his cryptocurrency account, “I probably check it like three times a week.” “For the most part, I just tried to let it rest, although it’s kind of fascinating to see when it’s rising — and then not so much.” He views the money from this work as an investment because he has other finances to cover rent and needs.
His company sees it as a method to recruit top talent. SharpRank, an independent oddsmaker rating organisation, employs “campus captains,” influential college students, as brand ambassadors and to expand its user base. SharpRank, unlike Redbull, Lyft, or Apple, does not have a real product to discount or give away.
“When they [potential employees] looked at what we were doing as a startup, we wanted to differentiate ourselves from the pack,” said Chris Adams, SharpRank’s founder and CEO.
According to Adams, more than half of the company’s employees receive at least some of their income in cryptocurrency. When some employees discuss their professions, there appears to be extra value in terms of crypto’s “cool factor.”
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) compels anyone who make money in cryptocurrency to pay tax on it, which can be tricky. Employees must disclose total pay in dollars, based on the cryptocurrency’s value on the day they were paid. This means that persons who were paid in cryptocurrency may have to pay taxes on income that has since depreciated in value.
More organisations are looking into paying salaries in digital tokens as more young people enter the workforce interested in getting paid in crypto, and as employers hunt for innovative methods to attract talent.
Crypto salaries are difficult to come by because to the complexity of wage regulations and taxation, but businesses are eager to figure it out. Phil Bauknight, chair of the Fisher Phillips Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Taskforce, said, “Options can be taken to assess and limit risk.” Firms should evaluate federal, state, and local regulations and ensure that they are documented.
