Blockchain has been one of the most talked about concepts of 2018 - not least in travel, where its development is touted by some as the future of distribution and security.
While the value of Bitcoin has fluctuated wildly from a high of more than $19,000
one year ago to around $3,700 today, the framework underlying this and other cryptocurrencies
has been on a more stable – and upward – trajectory.
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Mainstream companies across a diverse mix of sectors are
experimenting with blockchain technology.
Companies such as American Express,
J.P. Morgan, the United Nations Development Programme and the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention are investing time and resources to develop blockchain-based
products, services and operational processes, lured by its promises of consensus,
immutability, speed and decentralization.
In travel, blockchain is being used to develop new systems for distribution,
loyalty, identity, operations and more, topics we explored in depth in February.
Ethan
Chernofsky, vice
president of marketing for multi-sector blockchain network Orbs Group, says one measure of
whether the technology can truly disrupt travel is if it can eventually create real value for consumers.
"The
ultimate process of the technology is centered around making the end user a
fundamental part of the value exchange and not just enabling advertisers to
better target and understand audiences. If users begin to see real value, the
floodgates could open,” he argues.
While companies including IBM, Travelport, SITA and TUI Group are
actively exploring blockchain, much of the work in travel is being done by younger businesses,
initiatives built from the ground up with blockchain at their core.
Startup-led culture
We reached out to more than a dozen companies developing
blockchain solutions for travel and invited them to provide a description of
the product they are developing, noteworthy activity in 2018 and priorities for
the coming year. Fourteen of them responded – here is their input, in alphabetical order.
Arise
Travel
- Date launched: January 2018
- Purpose: To foster innovation in the hospitality industry by creating
technology that allows travel companies to exchange data and transact in a more
direct, efficient and transparent way. The Arise network relies on blockchain
technology to build a distributed cache of hotel room and rate information that
all connected systems can use at the same time. Hotels set the commission rate
they're willing to pay for a booking along with their nightly rates. Any
service can choose to sell that hotel's rooms and earn the set commission
amount. We use smart contracts on our network to automatically handle
commission payouts, giving both parties the confidence to work together without
signing a traditional contract.
- 2018 highlights: Built and load-tested our distributed ledger technology
used by our partners to create their own distribution networks; launched a
distributed central reservation system application that can be deployed on our
networks; planned proofs of concept for 2019; raised a pre-seed with
institutional investors.
- 2019 priorities: Run successful proofs of concept and gain traction as a more flexible, transparent
and robust, peer-to-peer connectivity solution for industry players that are
already doing business directly with each other but have been relying on
existing intermediaries for connectivity.
Atlas
- Date launched: July 2018
- Purpose: To create a travel DApp (decentralized application) that connect all
consumers and suppliers in the travel industry to a decentralized marketplace
that incentivizes content creation, transactions and consent-based data-sharing.
Atlas provides a commission-free infrastructure for suppliers to list inventory
and for customers to complete accommodation bookings, restaurant reservations
or tickets for events. The
team behind Atlas also created Zanadu, a Chinese luxury travel platform.
- 2018 highlights: Investment and blockchain partnerships with Ontology Network,
a distributed trust network, and Kakao Klaytn, a South Korean messaging firm;
angel round funding.
- 2019 priorities: Create exchange listing and the launch of Atlas DApp in in the
first half of the year, enabling user reviews and accommodation bookings. Many
of Zanadu’s partners are keen to be part of the Atlas blockchain venture, and we
will announce the names and details of the partnerships as we finalize them
over the next few months.
Beenest
- Date
launched: October 2017
- Purpose:
To become the largest vacation rentals platform for cryptocurrency users.
Companies such as Coinbase have matured the on-ramp to people entering
cryptocurrency and buying them for fiat. However, there aren't many off-ramps
from cryptocurrency, which means spending or using your cryptocurrency once you
have some. We believe that travel is one of the largest verticals of spending and
maturing this off-ramp gateway will be bring a new influx of users for the
travel industry as well as mature the cryptocurrency industry.
- 2018
highlights: Raised $15 million in January 2018 through an Initial Coin Offering
(ICO) and since launched a fully working alpha.
Users are able to pay with U.S. dollars, ether, and BEE tokens as payment
options, and we are partnering with cryptocurrency conferences and other events
to find our first adopters to stay at Beenests, properties in our system.
- 2019 priorities: User growth is a priority. We want to acquire more hosts and activate
our referral and ambassador programs. Additionally, a large priority is to
increase our partnerships in both the cryptocurrency and travel spaces. Each
cryptocurrency has its own userbase and accepting more types of
cryptocurrencies will increase our user base.
Blockskye
- Date launched: February 2017
- Purpose: To develop
open-source, permissioned Ethereum solution for travel and entertainment
distribution, pricing and payment.
- 2018 highlights: Completed end-to-end integration with a major U.S. legacy carrier and a
large corporate travel buyer to fulfill direct-connect ticketing, pricing and
payment using blockchain and Ethereum smart contracts. Completed multiple proofs
of concept with the Airline Reporting Corporation focusing on next-generation
settlement. Wrote a white paper with ATPCO that kicked off our joint-initiative
to develop blockchain solutions to maintain NDC fare integrity.
- 2019 priorities: Activate a corporate buyer population of 50,000+ corporate
travelers on multiple, legacy carriers and leading hotel flags; develop
blockchain solutions for interline ancillary settlement with a leading, global
carrier; continue to advance our initiative focusing on
smart-contract-generated pricing solutions.
KeyoCoin
- Date launched: February 2017
- Purpose: To shift power in the travel industry from the few big players
that act as commission-hungry middlemen and put it back in the hands of
travelers and independent travel businesses.
- 2018 highlights: Launched web and
app marketplaces, with over 12,000 tours, activities and local experiences; secured
deals with hotels and accommodation networks to bring over 150,000 properties
to the KeyoCoin marketplace; unveiled 1,000 travel challenges in 100 cities
around the world setting the scene for our gamified world for consumers to
explore; brought on an all-star team of advisors uniquely experienced in
consumer technology (Apple, Oracle, Hyperloop, Ticketmaster, Live Nation,
Western Union, Wedbush and IGN); developed beta versions of the KeyoPass
digital concierge app and mobile hospitality platform.
- 2019 priorities: We will
have the KeyoCoin token
offering, launch the KeyoCoin universal travel rewards platform and integrate
our global travel challenges into our universal travel rewards platform. We will
continue to build the the KeyoCoin community, including fresh deals with
marketplace partners, and launch new products including our custom itinerary
product that will help travelers enjoy a more personalized travel experience.
Loyyal
- Date launched: August 2014
- Purpose: To
reinvent how loyalty is created, rewarded, and managed. Using proprietary
blockchain and smart contract technology, Loyyal's interoperable loyalty and
rewards platform brings a host of benefits to a highly fragmented industry and
offers brands an innovative way to unlock the billions of dollars in value held
captive in legacy loyalty programs today.
- 2018 highlights: Starting with the successful release of v1.0 of our enterprise-grade
blockchain platform, Loyyal completed pilot programs for a Big Five Canadian bank, a
Dubai-based leading global airline, and a Proof of Concept for the world’s
largest airline alliance. On the technology front, Loyyal was awarded a
patent for Distributed Ledger Protocol
to Incentivize Transactional and Non-Transactional Commerce by the
Japanese Patent Office and made significant progress on our patent applications
in eight other countries around the world, stemming from our landmark 2014
filings. Lastly, Loyyal extended its international reach through an equity
investment led by Australia-based REFFIND, who also serves as our exclusive
Network Operator in the region.
- 2019 priorities: To surpass the successes of 2018, our priorities for the
coming year will focus our energies on the continued development of our product
suite to further enhance security, performance, and scalability; growing the
number of partners and the volume of loyalty transactions managed on our
platform, to bring greater benefits of scale for them and their members; and to
complete our largest capital raise to date via a Series B round, to accelerate
our growth even further, along with the capacity to better serve our clients.
PopulStay
- Date launched: January 2018
- Purpose: To build the new home sharing
business using blockchain technology, creating a direct connection between
hosts and guest sand lowering transaction costs.
- 2018 highlights: Obtained the seed round funding of about $2.25 million from
Bitmain, Handsome Capital, Qtum, Crypto Capital and others; created our minimum
viable product with 2,000 accommodation choices in Japan and 300
bed-and-breakfast units in Singapore.
- 2019 priorities: Raise another round of
capital to handle marketing, business development and product iteration.
Rezchain
- Date launched: Rezchain has been incubated with the WebBeds B2B environment since late 2016 and in full production within the WebBeds group since September 2017.
- Purpose: Rezchain, part of the Webjet Limited group of companies, gives participating trading partners (a buyer and a seller) peace of mind that they both hold the same data for the version of a hotel booking held in their separate systems and alerts both parties when a discrepancy is found. Rezchain utilizes the inherently robust, decentralized and trustworthy framework of Ethereum Blockchain to process data from both sides and then automatically alerts users at the time the discrepancy occurs that there is a mismatch of data, allowing the parties to take action to resolve the discrepancy before there is any financial or customer impact. Each party retains full control over its own data, sharing access keys only with the corresponding other party.
- 2018 highlights: Rezpayments has been successfully implemented for the reciprocal trading relationships between Sunhotels, Lots of Hotels, and Jac Travel, all part of the Webjet’s WebBeds B2B division. Rezchain has processed more than 850,000 transactions and discovered more than 25,000 discrepancies and incomplete bookings, allowing significant unnecessary losses to be avoided.
- 2019 priorities: Rezchain becomes available to external parties in early 2019. Memorandums of understanding have been signed with four industry-leading organizations to be the first external participants. Rezchain will then be made available more broadly to organizations that want to reduce the occurrence of invoicing disputes and customer check in issues.
Travala
- Date launched:
March 2018
- Purpose: To create a one-stop travel booking platform combining the best of
this generation’s online travel agency functionality with the incredible
benefits of next-gen’s decentralized technologies and tokenized incentives,
offering a globally competitive range of accommodations always available at a
minimum average of 15% lower than current mainstream OTAs, enabled through
agile integration of the leading wholesale travel solution partners. The
platform will be boosted with discounts and special offers direct from brands
and suppliers with blockchain-verified reviews for 100% feedback authenticity,
and this will be underpinned by a token-powered incentivization economy which
gives real rewards for valuable acts such as user referrals and
key-opinion-leader content.
- 2018 highlights: Successful token sale in March that allowed us to develop Travala.com,
currently with 567,928 properties in 210 countries covering 82,311 destinations
and accepting more than 40 cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies as payment
options; grown the team to 20 full-time employees; multiple partnerships with
travel industry leaders including Gimmonix, Hotelbeds, Hotelspro, Abreu Online,
GRNconnect, Destinations of the World, Hoteldo and more have set us up for a
huge year in 2019.
- 2019 priorities: To integrate with our travel tech partner Gimmonix and
integrate with 30 leading wholesale accommodation suppliers to provide 1.5
million instantly bookable properties with the best rates, availability, speed
and best in class user experience and in the first quarter launch our beta
marketplace; add a full spectrum of payment options and implement our token
economy rewards, loyalty, refunds and smart member program; add flights, activities,
transfers, car rentals and travel insurance; add new partners; initiate search
engine and influencer marketing strategies.
TravelBlock
- Date launched: July 2018
- Purpose: To create a private booking platform that
uses a cost-plus retail model. TravelBlock purchases inventory directly from travel
providers at a discounted bulk wholesale price and sells that inventory at a
profit directly to its members – those people that own at least one TRVL token –
at prices significantly below the prices mandated by online travel agency rate integrity
agreements. Because members directly purchase travel inventory, as opposed to
just reserving it, there is no possibility of overbooking. Because TravelBlock
only lists its own inventory, providers are not charged additional commission
for preferential listing. Searches on the platform are instead ordered by a
member’s preferred sorting filter. Our users
can book using both traditional currencies and cryptocurrencies such as our
TRVL token.
- 2018 highlights: Successfully raised our token sale soft cap, launched our
platform to our current TRVL holders for fiat transactions.
- 2019 priorities: Launch tokenized platform; secure more strategic partnerships;
accept other cryptocurrencies; strengthen our marketing tactics to attract more
users all over the world; introduce a crypto debit card; launch an app version
of the platform.
Trip.io
- Launched: February 2018
- Purpose: To create a global, zero-commission marketplace connecting
travel suppliers and consumers.
- 2018 highlights: Released the Tripio
Points Protocol, an open platform for industry points based on blockchain, and
the first version of Tripio, including web app, iOS App and Android app, with
access to 430,000 hotels around the world. The process of room release,
front-end sales and payment settlement are all running on blockchain for both
iOS and Android versions. Trip.io cooperates with six cryptowallets and 37
hotel brands, including Floral hotels, Sheraton
Sanya and Sweetome Group.
- 2019 priorities: Optimize the on-chain
process, including rooms release, management, booking and payment; develop an
arbitration agreement to handle the resolution of disputes; ensure that
behavioral incentives, consumption and proof of rights are all completed on
chain; open communities in products to enhance user participation and activity;
add Trip Experience module, support booking and write-offs of activities and meet
up on chain; cooperate with more outstanding blockchain projects and hotels.
Trippki
- Date launched: 2017
- Purpose: To create a
decentralized ecosystem for customer loyalty rewards by creating an incentive for
those who use its booking platform. Users who book hotels in either fiat or
cryptocurrencies receive 5% of their booking value in TRIP tokens, which they
can either cash in towards partial or full payment for future hotel stays,
transfer them to friends or family or trade them on an exchange.
- 2018 highlights: Designed and built a minimum viable product Trippki Hotel Booking
Platform, which we launched at end of June 2018 and are still developing as our
funds allow us to do so. In September we pivoted our strategy by
partnering with CTS Custom Travel Solutions and will be launching a live
hotel booking platform by the end of January 2019 with an inventory of 1.6 million hotels accepting
payments in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Lightning, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Decred, Monero,
and Dogecoin as well credit cards.
- 2019 priorities: We will continue with
our LCO (Live Coin Offering), which becomes live as users begin transacting on
the Trippki booking platform and integrate TRIP tokens into our crypto-payment
gateway. We will also implement our trust-less review system, which uses quadratic
voting and proof-of-stay protocol and continue to create partnerships with global
travel brands.
TripX
- Date launched: November 2018
- Purpose: To enable any large travel company to
massively reduce the costs and complexities involved in the back‐office systems
that presently manage payments and commissions between suppliers and their resellers
or direct corporate customers. TripX’s platform removes or substantially
reduces the cost and complexity of the deposit, invoicing, batch process, and
reconciliation processes that can stretch payment and commission settlement to
sometimes well over 60 days. The platform is built with modules for hotel,
airline, online travel agency, travel management company, tour operator and GDS
suppliers. Car rental and cruise modules are also in development.
- 2018 highlights: Built
and delivered the TripX Payment Widget, which makes it possible for any travel
company to accept Bitcoin with real time checkout and receive payment in fiat
currency of their choice with no fees; completed the buildout of our
proprietary solution resolving the security, speed and compliance issues that
we believe put us significantly ahead of competitive solutions.
- 2019 priorities: Work with designated large enterprise partners to develop and
deploy smart contracts and launch “sandbox” testing with limited agent/re-seller networks. In Q2, review results, refine SaaS based payment model,
register re-sellers/agents for rollout, and in Q3 roll out solution with two
to three large customers.
Winding Tree
- Date launched: 2014
- Purpose: To develop software projects, data exchange standards and
infrastructure with the goal of advancing the travel industry.
- 2018 highlights: Completed a successful ICO in January 2018, raising 16,278
ETH. Created partnerships RSK, Zeppelin, citizenM, Air France-KLM, Air
Canada, HTNG, and continued working with Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, ARUBA
Atech Foundation, Nordic Choice Hotels.
- 2019 priorities: Winding Tree will be focusing on airline product
development and completing the first transaction over the platform. The company
will also look to further expanding and building on the open source and
developer community in travel and around Winding Tree platform. A third primary
priority for 2019 revolves around integrating hotels and getting their content
live and booked on the platform, now that the hotel platform and APIs are up
and available.
Welcome to the Hot 25 Startups for 2019
Click
here for a who's who
of new businesses to watch over the course of the next 12 months.