Companies that effectively make use of the 'sharing economy' are among Silicon Valleys darlings. From Airbnb in the real estate sector, to Kickstarter in crowd funding, to uber in the ride-sharing sector, these companies are among the highest valued companies in the world, and some of them aren't even profitable (yet)!
Helbiz
Helbiz is aiming to have that same level of recognition in the car-sharing sector, or more specifically vehicle-sharing sector since their platform not allows onto participants to share cars, but bicycles and motorcycles as well. Let's dive into what exactly they're developing, where they're at currently technologically, and the team they have backing them
Team
Salvatore Palella - Founder, has spent over 10 years in the banking & investment industry, most recently as CEO of SP1 Cryptocurrency Bank.
Armando Calvosa - Cofounder. Unfortunately, not much is known about his background other than that he's founded a successful digitial marketing firm.
Justin Giuliano - President of Blockchain Operations
Milos Citakovic - Co-Founder, responsible for product development
Nemanja Stancic - Head of engineering
Overall, their team is impressive. They have lots of successful big name entrepreneurs involved and well known advisors. They also clearly have a lot of big money and investors to back them, just as many other sharing economy companies have. However, if there's an area they're lacking, it's in terms of technical expertise and development. It would be nice to learn more about those actually coding their platform and smart contract.
Business Model
The main use of the Helbiz platform is to allow users to sell basic data to 3rd parties in exchange for Helbiz Coin (HBZ). In this model, no central authority is needed to verify payments, user information, screen identities, since this is all managed by the Helbiz Mobility Platform. The smart contract verifies information information about the user before allowing them to access the vehicle, such as their 'reputation score'. If the users reputation score doesn't meet the minimum requirement set forth by the vehicle owner (perhaps because they're too new or have had too many accidents), they will be denied access to use the vehicle.
Furthermore, the smart contract allows users to pay in Helbiz Coin rather than fiat currency should they choose to do so. It's important to note that the Helbiz Mobility Platform won't require users to to pay with HBZ token, as obviously requiring end users to possess a cryptocurrency that the vast majority of people won't possess would hinder user adoption. Paying with HBZ coin is a win-win for everyone as it's more secure, far lower transaction fees than Visa/Mastercard, whose fees are typically around 3% give or take depending on the country, and all transactions can be quickly and easily verified.
Helbiz Token Sale
Helbiz has a token sale going on from February 15th 2018 until March 4th 2018. Their presale is currently live right now, and they've already raised 4.3 Million USD out of the 5 Million cap they've set for the presale.
Helbiz Official Channels and Links:
Tokensale Website: https://www.helbizcoin.io/
Whitepaper: https://goo.gl/eygwwt
Official Website: https://www.helbiz.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/helbizofficial
Medium blog: https://medium.com/@HelbizOfficial
Facebook: https://goo.gl/66VHRu
Youtube: https://goo.gl/h4bLhD
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/helbiz/
Telegram Channel: https://t.me/helbizofficial