The United States-based Thor project has released its monthly progress report for October. Thor’s goal is to provide payments, healthcare access, and retirement planning for independent “1099” (short for filing IRS form 1099-MISC) contract laborers.

Lightning Pay

Thor’s instant payment system, which uses a debit card to withdraw funds directly from the Thor Mobile Wallet balance, was tested for the first time in October. Thor’s ability to issue debit cards allows contract labor immediate access to their funds, rather than having to wait up to three days for an ACH transfer through the banking system.

Thor also announced it is working on automated tax reporting for companies. Thor claims demand for its system will be driven by the fact that taxes are “much more cumbersome” for 1099 contractors than for salaried W-2 employees.

A partnership with a “major workplace scheduling provider” should also bring legally compliant workplace scheduling. Its payments, tax reporting, and scheduling features will all be handled by the Odin application, Thor’s payment portal for employers of 1099 labor.

Thor Care

Providing health care services for contract labor has involved the navigation of an uncertain legal environment. Thor’s current mission involves the aggregation of workers into geographic areas or industries, in order to offer an affordable health care plan for its 1099 worker groups, with “competitive premium prices”.

To support this goal, Thor also unveiled a tentative roadmap, under which it will register as a non-profit association in early 2019. This plan is designed to allow Thor to unveil its Association Health Plan, to be known as Thor Care, and then begin open enrollment for its health coverage before the November 1st, 2019 deadline.

Money Transmitter Licenses

Thor announced “progress in securing” the necessary Money Transmitter Licenses for each of the 50 U.S. states. This progress has included participation in a program designed to streamline the MTL application process, as well as a necessary partnership with an anti-money laundering company specializing in cryptocurrency transactions. In the meantime, its partnership with the payment services provider, Dwolla, gives Thor licensing and access to transfer fiat currency via the U.S. banking network.

Thor’s monthly update may be read in full at the following link:
https://medium.com/thorco/thor-october-2018-progress-report-d3ca5cb7bd68

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