It's estimated that 150 million people now use travel booking website AirBnB. What's more the the site features over 4 million listings and has a valuation of approximately $31 billion.
All this a company that was founded only nine years ago.
As the success of AirBnB demonstrates, it can be incredibly profitable if you can successfully disrupt the accomodation market.
One company that wants to do precisely that is LockChain (https://lockchain.co/). They are creating the first end to end system connecting property and customers which doesn’t have any fees or commission.
All of this is possible thanks to the power of the blockchain. Here we’ll take a closer look at exactly what Lockchain and what makes it different from existing platforms in the accommodation space.
What is Lockchain?
Lockchain is an open source booking ecosystem for hotel rooms, private properties and and accommodation. The Lockchain platform brings together those who have accommodation that they want to rent and those people who want to rent it.
What Makes Lockchain Different To Competing Platforms?
Lockchain is of course not the first platform in the accommodation space. Expedia, AirBnB and Booking.com all offer a similar product.
The key difference is that these are all centralised platforms. In most cases they take fees from both the property owner and the customer.
And thats not all. Payment processesor also take a fee for their services.
Lockchain is a decentralised platform which is built on the Ethereum blockchain. As a consueqnece all of the middlemen are removed from the process. There are no fees for either the property owner or the customer for using the platform.
In addition because all of the transactions occur on the blockchain the entire process is completely transparent. All of this will occur on the LOC Booking Ledger.
What Are The Benefits For Property Owners?
As detailed above the main benefit for property owners is that there aren’t any fees for listing their property on the Lockchain platform. Because there are zero barriers to entry to using the platform property owners should be inclined to at least try out the Lockchain platform.
Property owners can add their property to Lockchain with a user friendly interface on either a mobile app or website. Once added they can add their listing through the LOC ledger.
If property owners already have a listing for their property on another platform they can quickly shift their property to Lockchain using a one-click solution.
What Are The Benefits For Customers?
Customers will be able to use the Lockchain platform to search for accommodation using either the mobile or web app. The user interface will be simple and easy to use. The biggest advantage is that there will be zero commissions. Typically zero commissions would only normally be available when a property owner and an end customer deal with each directly.
How Does The Decentralised LOC Ledger Work?
The engine which powers the entire Lockchain ecosystem is the LOC Ledger. This is used to regulate all of the transactions and interactions that occur between property providers and their customers.
The LOC Ledger will keep ar record of all transactions. It will regulate the execution of transactions through smart contract triggers.
The LOC ledger will run a range of operations including booking placement and confirmation, holding and releasing deposits, and dispute triggers and terms.
The LOC Ledger is open source and will be free for anyone to us. The idea is to encourage other travel sites to connect to the LOC ledger. This will in turn drive demand for the LOC token.
A Typical Customers Journey On LockChain
To understand what a typical customers journey looks like on Lockchain it is useful to use an example. Imagine that Christopher wants to book a room for his upcoming trip to Barcelona. Christopher uses the web app to find an apartment in Barcelona that he wants to rent. Once he has found a suitable apartment he wants to rent he books that apartment in euros using his credit card. Once payment has been made the Lockchain algorithm automatically converts his payment in euros into the native LOC token. This is done by placing a market buy order for LOC.
Information about Christopher’s booking is placed on the decentralised Lockchain booking ledger. This will include any data about refunds and deposits. This information is sent from the LOC blockchain to the property owner.
The owner of the property in Barcelona can then choose to withdraw funds from Lockchain. They can make this withdrawal in Euros. When this withdrawal taks places an algorithm will execute a sell order for the LOC tokens that they have earned by renting the platform.
LOC Tokensale
The LOC Tokensale will start on he 29th October 2017. The Tokensale will be limited to the equivalent of 32,000 ETH. The total token supply of LOC will be 25 million LOC. Any LOC which is unsold will be burnt at the end of the token sale.
Token sale website: https://lockchain.co/
Token sale whitepaper: https://lockchain.co/whitepaper_v1.2_s.pdf
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