Blockchain’s pervasive applicability has not spared travel either. The online travel industry is filled with intermediaries enforcing trust and handling transactions.
This is an ideal scenario for blockchain to disrupt. There are many projects working towards making online travel offerings better.
We have listed 4 that we think are quite interesting and are solving some major problems.
Sandblock – Bringing Real Value to Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs in the travel industry are a contentious issue. Things like frequent fliers points are useful, but they don’t really benefit the average person.
For the regular air traveller to redeem these points, they would have to go through complex offer conditions and procedures before they can do anything with it.
For the most part, users aren’t willing to go through this ordeal. So, they either switch to better rewards programs or worse still, let the points expire.
This is where Sandblock comes in. Through its blockchain platform, travel companies can create their own loyalty tokens.
The best bit for the customer – tokens can be exchanged for other currencies, including world money.
Businesses reward these tokens in a community-driven manner. This results in better data which in turn results in better campaigns.
UbiatarPlay – Be everywhere
The dream of being at two places at once is something that everyone has had. Imagine if you had an important function to attend, but you also had to be at a business meeting.
UbiatarPlay makes this happen for you. They have an augmented reality app, which allows you to hire people remotely to do your bidding.
It is almost akin to teleportation and provides users with ubiquity. With the Ubiatar coins, users can pay their avatars in a secure manner.
Ubiatar has an upcoming ICO in a few days Learn more here – https://ubiatarplay.io/
Winding Tree – Online booking on Blockchain
Intermediaries such as MakeMyTrip and Expedia live on booking commissions. The service they provide is useful, but given their monopoly, the fees are too high.
This is what Winding Tree wants to change. Their technology can be used by any online travel portal. The blockchain governs the entire travel booking ecosystem and transaction fees are dramatically reduced.
They only charge users to cover the miner fees and even have their own currency. They recently concluded their ICO raising over 16k Ether.
HireGO – Blockchain based P2P car sharing
As the gig economy gains prominence, fewer people are interested in buying cars. Companies like ZoomCar in India are popular for this very reason.
However, centralised services charge over 30% in commissions for the same. While hiring from individuals, trust is an issue.
HireGo aims to change that. With the use of blockchain, they can reduce transaction costs, as well as increase trust, as smart contracts enable trustless car rental agreements.
They are also future-proof. As and when cars become IoT ready, the HireGo platform can be used for physical access to the cars without any human contact.
Must Read – Top 6 blockchain projects in the Insurance Sector
Hitesh Malviya is the Founder of ItsBlockchain. He is one of the most early adopters of blockchain & cryptocurrency enthusiast in India. After being into space for a few years, he started IBC in 2016 to help other early adopters learn about the technology.
Before IBC, Hitesh has founded 4 companies in the cyber security & IT space.
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