Are you tired of the hassle that comes with traveling, where you're constantly bombarded with KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements and insurance policies? As someone who has worked in the travel industry for years and knows the joys and challenges of being a traveler, I completely understand your frustrations.
When you take a flight, buy a new SIM card, book a hotel, or rent any service or product, you're probably all too familiar with the KYC process. It's a necessary evil, designed to ensure security and protect both businesses and travelers. However, the hoops we have to jump through and the amount of personal information we have to share can be overwhelming.
But what if there was a way to simplify this process, providing trust and security without the need for exhaustive KYC checks and intrusive insurance policies? With Bitcoin, the revolutionary blockchain that has the potential to transform the way we handle payments and transactions while traveling.
Imagine a world where you don't need to know every detail about your guests as a service provider, but you can still have the assurance that they will pay for the services you offer. On the flip side, picture being a traveler and not having to worry about carrying cash, credit cards, or navigating complex insurance policies. This is the promise of Bitcoin in the travel industry.
One of the biggest pain points in travel is handling payments, because for some money is a delicate (or even worse, a tabu) and ideally you want just to focus on delivering top-notch experiences to your customers. Bitcoin can automate and streamline the payment process, eliminating the need for you to deal with payments directly. Instead, you can trust the Bitcoin network to handle it securely and efficiently for both parties, the customer and the service provider.
Services like Airbnb has been a game-changer. Airbnb not only takes care of payments but also offers a level of trust and assurance. As a traveler, you know that in case of any damage or mishap, Airbnb has you covered. Bitcoin can offer a similar level of trust, but with even more simplicity and security.
Here's how it could work, and please consider I'm not technical person so maybe this is just a dream:
  1. QR Codes for Transactions: Instead of sharing sensitive personal information, both service providers and travelers can rely on QR codes for transactions. Service providers can generate QR codes that travelers scan to make payments, ensuring a seamless and secure process.
  2. Smart Contracts: it's early still, but Bitcoin's blockchain technology could allows for the creation of a set of self-executing and automatically release payments to service providers when certain conditions are met, such as a successful stay at a hotel or a safe return of a rented item. Other set of contracts need to be setup to cover the service provider in the other side.
  3. Instant Settlement: Bitcoin transactions are fast and can be settled instantly. This means that service providers don't have to wait for days or weeks to receive their payments. It's quick, efficient, and hassle-free.
  4. Trust Through Transparency: The blockchain ledger is transparent and tamper-resistant. This means that both parties can trust that transactions will be recorded accurately and can be audited if necessary.
Of course, challenges and questions remain, including regulatory considerations (that I personally ignore as much I can) and the need for education, adoption and trust on the technology. However, by focusing on small communities or niche markets willing to embrace this technology, we can start a revolution in the travel industry. Maybe is already started, we just need to look at places like:
  • Bitcoin Beach
  • Bitcoin Lake
  • Bitcoin jungle
  • Bitcoin Island
They are all examples of emerging Bitcoin communities that are mostly leveraging turism to have the local circular economies up and running. In this vision, travelers can enjoy their journeys without the burden of paperwork, insurance claims, or worries about payment methods. Service providers can concentrate on what they do best: providing excellent services to their guests, confident that they will be compensated fairly and promptly.
While the transition to a Bitcoin-powered travel industry may not happen overnight, the possibilities are exciting. It's time to explore how Bitcoin can make travel more pleasurable, secure, and convenient for everyone involved. Say goodbye to the frustrations of KYC and insurance, and say hello to a new era of trust and simplicity in travel.
So the final question for you is... how we can use Bitcoin to manage and automate all these sometime-unconfortable requirements/guarantees we need to face when travelling?
KYC is often a requirement for travelers because it provides a credible threat of financial or legal consequences for the traveler if they misbehave or commit fraud.
If a guest trashes their hotel room, abuses staff, runs up an unpaid bill, uses stolen credit card info, etc, KYC data gives the hotel (or its insurance company) a way to recoup their losses by pursuing damages in court from the abusive guest.
In a way, honest guests are forced into surrendering their identity as a way of putting up collateral to ensure they behave well during their stay. Hotels can't safely offer their services without such collateral.
Perhaps instead of their identity, customers who prefer to retain their privacy could offer, y'know, actual collateral, vis-a-vis bitcoin.
The traveler deposits some agreed quantity of bitcoin in a 2-of-3 multisig contract. The collateral is released back to the customer (minus the hotel fees) if the hotel and traveler both agree. But if the two aren't in agreement, they bring in a mutually trusted auditor who can attest to the correct outcome and divide up the collateral accordingly.
One might envision this as a service hired in advance by both guest and hotel. This service acts as an escrow who attests to either "the stay went smoothly" or "dang that guy behaved terribly", or anywhere in between, according to the findings of their investigator. Since the majority of hotel stays go smoothly, this service could make big bucks. In fact, this service could be generalized to work in almost any industry that requires KYC data as collateral.
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thanks for sharing your thoughts. Ideally we do not want to place any third party between the existing two. My aim was to ideally utilize the "smartness" of bitcoin for it. I can see it as a preset of transactions that need to be set:
So the customer that want to book:
  • send request
  • define date range
  • define # or people
  • define whatever else is needed
The service provider in the other side:
  • review request
  • approve/reject
  • send more transactions request (invoices?) to the customer
Finally customer sign (cryptographically) and all contracts waiting in the mempool to be confirmed or disregarded. Again, I do not have the tech knowledge to define if it could be doable or not. Ideally I trust bitcoin... will fix this too!
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So, as a traveler, you're required to trust the corporations, who don't trust you. They always regard you as a potential criminal.
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