4 ms·

I hope someone will combine decentralized currency with ride-sharing, such that the car owner gets a much higher percentage of the profits and the rider pays le

I hope someone will combine decentralized currency with ride-sharing, such that the car owner gets a much higher percentage of the profits and the rider pays less. A small amount can also go to the app writer, who would be using the shared decentralized backend(such that multiple apps could share the same decentralized data store). Once self-driving arrives each transaction could be a barter based on source and destination locations, along with the self-driving car's specific schedule. An intelligent network may emerge, where specific rides are cheaper for a car that needs to go to the specified area of town. You could further augment costs by allowing the self-driving car to manage it's own energy supply. I realize there are downsides to be thought through and the technology is nowhere near ready for this idea.

CydeWeys 9y ago
What does the decentralized currency add to it? Why/how would drivers get a larger percentage of the fare, in combination with the rider paying less? Right now ridesharing is cheap because it's partially subsidized; prices would go up if you stop doing that.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- fleitz 9y ago
  Service could be delivered cheaper as you wait 8 minutes for your BTC transaction to be confirmed. It's a very innovative way to increase wait times while increasing customer satisfaction amongst those who give a shit how the payment manages to transact.
  - whataretensors 9y ago
    There are several altcoins offering fast transactions these days. I agree about bitcoin, very slow and scary waiting for the transaction.
- quickthrower2 9y ago
  Centralised currency requires a bank like entity to transfer money from customer to driver. That forces the app to be centralised and one run by a unicorn. Small players will get fleeced on txn charges. A decentralised app (or apps) could work on a protocol and use bitcoin and the margins can be squeezed to almost zero as there are lots of competing apps, providers and aggregators etc. Think: like airlines. Only without the luxury/economy differentiation that exists in that industry. Ridesharing is subsidized right now but that can't last forever, right?
  - CydeWeys 9y ago
    Transaction costs are an insignificantly small part of what it costs to run an Uber or a Lyft. Most of their costs go to employee salaries (including developers and customer support) and hosting fees. I don't understand what using a decentralized currency would really change. Uber or Lyft could very easily add decentralized currencies as payment options in their apps now. It wouldn't change anything about the fundamental nature of the business other than you'd have another payment option. They still have to pay their software engineers, etc. As for this theoretical decentralized app, who writes it? Who pays to run the servers? If I have a problem with my ride, who is the arbiter?
ekianjo 9y ago
> I hope someone will combine decentralized currency with ride-sharing That would be ideal, but I'd be happy if one can call a ride-share in an anonymous way (just like a regular taxi) and pay by cash, without tons of cameras spying on you during your trip. Somehow I guess this not going to happen like that, and tracking where you go is going to be another ad-selling business in itself as well as new tactics for privacy invasion. Oh, and there's a good chance it will be calling home to Google, again.

CydeWeys 9y ago

What does the decentralized currency add to it? Why/how would drivers get a larger percentage of the fare, in combination with the rider paying less? Right now ridesharing is cheap because it's partially subsidized; prices would go up if you stop doing that.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
fleitz 9y ago
Service could be delivered cheaper as you wait 8 minutes for your BTC transaction to be confirmed. It's a very innovative way to increase wait times while increasing customer satisfaction amongst those who give a shit how the payment manages to transact.
- whataretensors 9y ago
  There are several altcoins offering fast transactions these days. I agree about bitcoin, very slow and scary waiting for the transaction.
quickthrower2 9y ago
Centralised currency requires a bank like entity to transfer money from customer to driver. That forces the app to be centralised and one run by a unicorn. Small players will get fleeced on txn charges. A decentralised app (or apps) could work on a protocol and use bitcoin and the margins can be squeezed to almost zero as there are lots of competing apps, providers and aggregators etc. Think: like airlines. Only without the luxury/economy differentiation that exists in that industry. Ridesharing is subsidized right now but that can't last forever, right?
- CydeWeys 9y ago
  Transaction costs are an insignificantly small part of what it costs to run an Uber or a Lyft. Most of their costs go to employee salaries (including developers and customer support) and hosting fees. I don't understand what using a decentralized currency would really change. Uber or Lyft could very easily add decentralized currencies as payment options in their apps now. It wouldn't change anything about the fundamental nature of the business other than you'd have another payment option. They still have to pay their software engineers, etc. As for this theoretical decentralized app, who writes it? Who pays to run the servers? If I have a problem with my ride, who is the arbiter?

ekianjo 9y ago

> I hope someone will combine decentralized currency with ride-sharing That would be ideal, but I'd be happy if one can call a ride-share in an anonymous way (just like a regular taxi) and pay by cash, without tons of cameras spying on you during your trip. Somehow I guess this not going to happen like that, and tracking where you go is going to be another ad-selling business in itself as well as new tactics for privacy invasion. Oh, and there's a good chance it will be calling home to Google, again.