PS: If my stance is not clear from my comment: I think most crypto-based startups are not solving a real problem, just adding crypto to an existing problem.
Of course there are still the (important) issues of disputes, insurance etc. that are provided by the centralized entity. These might be solved in the future and might be not.
Who provides a trusted system of reviews? Who hosts/controls those? What's the basis of trusting those to be legitimate users/customers? Who foots the bill for the site (or similar) that enables organized browsing of all listings, searching, information presentation, et al.? How do you force coordination on that if it's decentralized? How do you then keep that decision committee from becoming the central authority all over again? This is the libertarian anarchy problem, where you will always end up right back with some center power structure that becomes dominate.
There are a vast number of problems that Airbnb solves that you're leaving out.
There is no scenario where decentralized wins. The extreme majority of users do not care about decentralization, it is meaningless to them. They want a trusted central authority to hold responsible, complain to, sue, whatever.
There is Paypal, Moneygram, Western Union, there are direct wire transfers, in many countries you can pay by cheque, you can do a direct deposit ... And all of these work with your existing cash and credit cards and don't require knowledge how to set up a Bitcoin (or whatever-coin) wallet and how to use it and how not to get scammed.
It is literally a solution looking for a problem hoping to cash on the crypto craze (adding -coin to anything is a sure way to get funded/bought/have your stock price soar up).
But this would have to come into existence with all the lack of glamour as any dry old industry standard, the whole scenario contains absolutely no room for a starry-eyed "Uber on blockchain!" startup (which are doubtlessly legion).
Well, how is that possible when this page says?
https://www.cryptocribs.com/whyhost
CryptoCribs handles all the crypto payments for you. All we need is your public BTC and ETH address
And I doubt there are no commissions involved for handling payments.
Using a contract to do this actually makes a lot of sense and could limit breakage (where the supplier doesn't or can't charge the agent for the booking).
My main concern about this (which isn't addressed anywhere in the white paper) is privacy. If this is done poorly, you are effectively linking accounts on a public ledger with real world locations and dates. Not only that, the guest and the host know a lot about the financial state of each.
FWIW, I am staying in a flat sourced through cryptocribs later this year, and looking forward to it.
If you want to pay with a debit card, you can use AirBnB. If you want to pay with Bitcoin, you can use cryptocribs.
Or why don't you convert your crypto to fiat and do Airbnb?
I am just challenging that enough people consider fiat currency such a pain in the ass that they will leave Airbnb and flock to Cryptocribs (even considering they would have the quality, quantity, and trust of Airbnb someday). An "average" person sees the BTC price of 0.0009 per night and doesn't even know what value that in their base currency. Of course, if it becomes normal to pay with BTC than it would work.
And I'm contending that this doesn't have to happen.
Cryptocribs doesn't need to take over the entire market for it to be a worthwhile endeavour for its creator or users.
> Or why don't you convert your crypto to fiat and do Airbnb?
When you pay using a debit card in person, why don't you withdraw cash from an ATM and then pay with cash?
I agree it doesn't. But if they want to build a sustainable business, they'll need a critical mass. Maybe it's possible to achieve that mass with this model
> When you pay using a debit card in person, why don't you withdraw cash from an ATM and then pay with cash?
That's not a good analogy. If I need to buy a product and they don't accept debit cards, that's precisely what I do.
Consider this hypothetical scenario. A person has BTC and dollars. She needs to book an apartment for her holiday in Barcelona. If the better (regarding quality, price, trust, availability, location, etc.) is on Airbnb, do you think she would book an inferior offer just because she can pay with BTC?
Just to be clear: I'm not trying to bash Cryptocribs. I think it's fantastic that people are creating new stuff and challenging incumbents. I am not a crypto expert, but I do have some experience in building startups. I am just trying to pose challenging questions and get a discussion going. Because, who am I to know if this model or that model will work out in the future. All we can do is try to ask the right questions :-)
I agree with everything you've said, in the context of startups, but I think this is just a one-man side project. If it makes any money at all, it's a winner.
No, it won't be revolutionary when AirBnB starts accepting cryptocurrency. In fact, it'll fold immediately.