I’m spending the next month working remotely at the Jersey Shore.
When my wife and I decided on this extended trip to visit family, we immediately looked at places on Airbnb.
We were able to find a house close (but not too close) to where my mom currently resides. (She’s still in the house that I grew up in, which brings back a lot of memories.)
Airbnb is my go-to app whenever I travel. It gives me a better look into the local area than staying in a hotel. Plus, it’s often cheaper.
For me, Airbnb is perfect because it takes a lot of the work of booking travel off my shoulders. (Which allows me to worry about bigger things — like flying with a toddler.)
The company keeps track of host and visitor ratings. It facilitates payments and resolves issues.
It’s the perfect middleman.
It’s also a shining example of a platform business — which allows two parties with no prior history to engage in some form of economic commerce.
Platform businesses revolutionized the 2010s.
For the past decade, we have:
- Used Uber to be paired with a driver to get to our destination.
- Logged in to eBay to find a buyer for our collectibles.
- Streamed Netflix to find the latest video content.
The list goes on and on…
All these great tech companies were sparked by the internet.
And sure, the internet has changed our lives for the better.
But it also opened up a can of worms that we’re still dealing with.
The solution, however, may surprise you…
Internet 2.0 Is Long Overdue
In its most basic form, the internet allows us to digitize information. It can then be stored and shared.
It’s made our life more efficient than we could ever have imagined. We can provision resources based on data. We can even facilitate commerce across space and time.
The internet has also disrupted everything — from the way we get around to where we vacation to how we see our doctors. Without it, there would be no “dating apps,” and I never would have met my wife.
But there’s a major drawback to the internet. It’s allowed institutions, whether governmental or corporate, to become even more powerful.
Governments, such as China’s, can now monitor social interactions.
Amazon can track and even predict our e-commerce search history (and perhaps suggest what we’ll buy next).
Thanks to the internet, conspiracy theories are now mainstream news. And in some instances, mainstream news has become a conspiracy theory.
Twitter can “shadow-ban” or eliminate views it doesn’t agree with.
And for all their efficiency, platforms leverage the internet to scam users. For instance, Uber skims 25% off every ride.
But this will end soon. And it’s all thanks to crypto.
Here’s How Crypto Will Change Everything
Cryptocurrencies and their native blockchains are designed to take the power back from the middlemen and give it to users.
Bitcoin did it first.
It allowed two parties with no economic history to send something of digital value — without the need for a middleman.
Let me repeat that. In the middle of every blockchain-based transaction, there’s no centralized power structure that decides whether or not a transaction is valid (and takes a cut of every deal).
You can send bitcoin without the need for a payment platform like PayPal, Cash App or Zelle.
But proving this could be done was only crypto’s first step. Ethereum (ETH) took what bitcoin started and ran with it.
Ethereum built on top of bitcoin’s functionality. It provided a programming language known as “smart contracts.”
These smart contracts were the first time that a currency could be programmed.
And that’s why Ethereum is set to change the world.
Just as the internet created new forms of commerce, Ethereum will revolutionize digital commerce.
There are already cryptocurrencies built on Ethereum that are shaking up huge industries.
These Ethereum-based cryptos are creating a digital resource market. It includes things like cloud storage, network bandwidth and computational power.
Until now, ETH’s cost has made them virtually unusable. But that’s about to change in the next few months as it undergoes one of the biggest events in crypto history.
The next evolution of crypto will come from the tokenization of real-world things — stocks, bonds, real estate or even art. The possibilities are endless.
When that happens, a future summer rental might happen on the Airbnb blockchain using their native token. With fewer middlemen, there will be fewer ways for things to go wrong — and more time for you to enjoy your vacation.
I look forward to that day!
Regards,
Editor, Strategic Fortunes