Being a disruptive service to the hotel industry itself, it seems that AirBnb and similar serivces are in for some real crypto competition in 2018. AirBnb have had an amazing growth, reaching 1 billion in total revenue Q3 2017. An increase of 100% from the year before, being at 500 mill for the same quarter. And the growth does not bare any marks of slowing down. Now, they do have a giant cake to eat from that is growing itself, the total revenue of the lodging industry is estimated to be around 500 billion worldwide.
Still, AriBnb and similar services is quite expensive to use, holding the understanding that this is just a portal so to speak, where the main purpose is to bring the host and the visitor together. For those that have been sitting on both sides of the table to put it like that, you know that there is a relative substancial amount of fees that goes to AirBnb itself. The well known third party :)
Well, most of us know by now what one on the main traits to crypto is, getting rid of the third party. Allowing P2P directly, with no middle man. So, it had to happen; blockchain based "AirBnb disruptors".
I'll start with the project that has got the most attention so far, Lockchain.
Lockchain is a project sprung out of Bulgaria, and was an ICO of late November last year. The price picked up some speed not too long ago and has not yet been pumped, even if it is up some 400% in 2018 alone. It must be added that the price stayed well below ICO price for å long time compared to the Ethereum prices. Lockchain has a relatively low circulating supply of just 14 million. Some are held off to development of the project, vested 1 year. Total would be 18 mill. Still low.
Now, the benefits of Lockchain is obvious, and as mentioned you take out the middle man of the direct price one agrees upon. So the Lockchain team itself claims this stands for 20% lower prices.
The project is originally backed by the former Bulgarian president, Rosen Plevneliev, known also as a businessman. I mentioned this to my Bulgarian friend hoping to get his eyes on cryptos, but he replied "oh, it's that smuck Plevnliev" lol. Still my stance on it is that a former president, and businessman, have a name to keep, so the project is more likely to carry on with this than without I think. And it is surely not a scam.
Lockchain had a working alpha already last year, and will launch "Global booking launch" in Q1 2018, thats the current Q!
Lockchain do have something interesting in their roadmap; a integrated smart lock. No detailed info on it, but I can to the thinking here, and I would say it probably is a lock that somehow gives access to a appartment, house and so on linked to the smart contract somehow. Very good forthsight.
Lockchain is currently trading at 3,55$ with a mcap of just under 50 mill.
Then you have Emphy
Even tough Emphy was a little earlier to hit the market on the exchanges, it seems that it has been later to get spotted, ormaybe not gotten the same positive welcome as Lockchain. Not good to say. Maybe it's having a president as a backer that does the difference? :)
Emphy is an Estonian project, has a smaller team, and not the same active community as Lockchain. Emphy has a even lower circulating supply of just 7,6 mill tokens. Total supply is not too much below Lockchain, at 15 mill. So looks like the team has held of more tokens to marketing, them selves and so on. The market cap has gone up like 100% the last 24 hour, but is still like under 15% of Lockchains.
Emphy is launching beta in June and public release in August so they are a little bit behind Lockchain in roadmap.
I would say Lockchain does look like a better project as they are displayed atm, but if it should be that big difference in total market cap at this point, well, you decide for yourself :)