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Killing the Middlemen in the Rideshare Industry
(www.hamiltonnolan.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
The middle men are everyone but the driver and passenger though
Yeah exactly - the proposal here is to have a driver-owned worker cooperative run the app.
I present to you: https://eva.coop/
It's a little bit cryptobro-y, but the intentions are good.
If it has anything to do with crypto the intentions are not good.
Nah it's just that it uses blockchain technology for some reason (hype I guess), but it's not coin related. (Blockchains can be used for other purposes than money).
The Blockhain idea is actually great, crypto-currency is the scam. People need to learn differentiate.
I have yet to see any Blockchain application that wouldn't be better without a Blockchain
Yup, for example it can be used to provide distributed authentication
Or leave an audit trail for a logistics business for example.
There are a gazillion use cases, most overlooked because of the coin stench.
Is it a necessary technology for ride sharing?
not necessarily, but it can be a good idea to have a distributed, tamper proof ledger of transactions.
that way anyone can provide proof for basically anything to do with the service: payment, drive, location, etc.
it might also have advantages from a security perspective for riders and drivers.
there are advantages, they're not entirely necessary, but they may well be the best option for a distributed network (i.e.: no central server infrastructure, at least not beyond some simple software repository for downloads/updates)
It's the cryptocurrency that keeps it tamper proof.
Any blockchain can be altered they aren't immutable by nature.
What keeps it immutable is the incentive provided and to not cheat so you can get that incentive.
The whole thing is trustless and everyone is working together aligned on the incentive.
If it doesn't cost resources to secure the chain (which get recouped by the reward) anyone could just spin up a bazillion nodes and take control of the chain and alter the records. And anyone could collide to do so with others to benefit themselves by altering it if they aren't risking a reward, or in PoS, their stake.
If it's a small private blockchain to just keep track of data, people could collude and alter it and it could just be a write only dB with a few admins
What Satoshi did, was invent a way to make a digital item immutable, that was the invention. There were no immutable digital items prior to that. A blockchain isn't just immutable because it's a blockchain.
Isn't crypto a good use case here actually? No cental database.
Stop using "crypto" as a synonym for Blockchain. Crypto means cryptography and it's used in the communication between your browser and websites.
You are 100% correct. I meant to say blockchain.
Crypto yes, cryptocoin nah
That’s a great idea, if someone can bring the software and enough advertising to make it successful. It’s really hard but possible.
It has already been done, that's what the article is about: https://drivers.coop/
Currently based in NYC, but getting ready for a big launch in Minneapolis in response to the incumbent rideshare companies pulling out of the city in protest of increased rideshare regulation. Big opportunity to seize some marketshare without needing that much startup capital if your better financed competitors are removing themselves from that part of the market.
Best of luck to them. I'd love if this became a reality, it would make the whole gig economy a better place.
Past few times I have tried it. No drivers in Denver. I will keep trying but they need more drivers and this is not something that happens overnight
Yeah I think it's pretty much just in NYC for now, with a big launch in Minneapolis in progress. Hopefully they get to Denver soon!