At first, our 'Uber', 'Lyft' and 'Airbnb' all seem decentralized. To the naked eye, if you will, a customers given the chance to buy a service directly from a provider, through an app, gives the impression that the 'Uber' is a decentralized, P2P network. However, it is not. While your 'Uber' or 'Lyft' runs on your smart phone it does so via a fairly dumb app. The app is linked to a centralized platform which is controlled by and backs the company's goals and objectives. This centralized innovation is slow innovation and it's not what we deserve as a community.
I think we need to gradually bring in a decentralized 'headless Uber', so to speak, to replace the centralized sharing economy platforms controlled by single owners with decentralized cooperatives that issue blockchain-based shares. Thus giving ownership rights to workers and stakeholders.
An interesting example of this is La'Zooz. Like Uber and Lyft, La'Zooz is attempting to provide real-time ridesharing, but without the company. Interestingly, their blockchain network would exist on the phones and computers of its community of users. And much like Bitcoin’s 'proof of work' method that generates new tokens, La’Zooz generates new tokens with a 'proof of movement' method.
In what sector do you think a decentralized sharing economy could be most effective? And do you think such a platform could be built with Steem?