Uhhh what? Blockchain blockchain blockchain! And uber!
How in the world are these connected. He's presenting it like its this obvious thing that needs to be connected when it's not clear at all why any blockchain needs to be involved.
How in the world are these connected. He's presenting it like its this obvious thing that needs to be connected when it's not clear at all why any blockchain needs to be involved.
Admittedly, the article is light on technical details, but if you understand how blockchain technology works, you could easily deduce that a likely use case for this would be a service for connecting drivers to passengers without a middleman and without the regulatory burden that often prevents these services from proliferating in certain markets. A more fleshed out general case of a decentralized marketplace is OpenBazaar, which creates a marketplace with no middleman that can't be taken down.
There is no reason a blockchain based app couldn't be implemented. Whether this guy is actually on the right path or not is hard to say based on the article.
I don't think anyone is doubting this bit. It's the overwhelming current trend of forcing everything onto the blockchain, whether it improves the application or not. The interesting questions (frequently not answered) revolve around why one should do this.
There are good arguments for centralization, too. Not saying the blockchain argument win out. Just saying, the benefits are the same as for every other blockchain application, and well understood.
Surely a blockchain would only change that to anybody being able to track your travels, though?
1) open source hailing app or dispatcher 2) rating system with identities
For the hailing or dispatcher, we don't need bitcoin but it may be useful if there is abuse to impose some cost on hails (e.g., uber employees generating fake hails, haha).
For the rating and identity, we can use a GPG web of trust.
The end benefit to the consumer being monopoly prevention isn't likely to outweigh the service guarantees of a centralized service.
What if the broad spectrum of Craigslist service providers included car drivers who could (somehow - hand wave) offer rides on Craigslist?
How much confidence would you have in them?
What condition would you expect their cars to be in?
What kind of driving record could be expected from the drivers?
How would you choose a driver from that spectrum?
Would you expect to pay less or the same as for an Uber ride?
Under what circumstances would you just avoid using a Craigslist driver altogether?