Purpose:
Build a shared home rental platform that is owned by the network of users: hosts and renters.
The market leading short term home rental platform, Airbnb, is valued in excess of $100B. The majority of company value comes from 1) the network of users: hosts and renters, and 2) the first in class platform. The company’s business model is to collect a ~15% fee on any transaction made on the platform. Until the IPO in 2020, users were not able to participate in equity ownership, despite being the single largest determining factor of value creation and platform success. Private investors and institutions have gained the most from the success, and continue to represent significant ownership. By building a new shared rental app, and allowing an established network of users the choice migrate to a new network and participate in ownership by simply transacting, growth could happen quickly. Building a rental platform is inexpensive relative to the value creation and wealth transfer that would follow the establishment of a decentralized network. Success would open the door for this model to be replicated with other shared economies that are centrally owned.
Description:
Raise funding via an initial coin offering to build a basic home rental platform. Once operational, award coins to users that transact on the platform. There is a vesting period for the coin, after this period the coin can be sold. The platform will improve over time, and is majority owned by users. At a mature state, the coin is a means for transacting on the platform. The coin is backed by the network of users in the shared home rental economy. The coin value is derived from ownership of the platform, trust in the community network, democratized decision making, and liquidity from sufficient transaction volume.
Ownership Split: 80% / 20% // User / Developer+Investor “D+I”. Fixed quantity ICO, 10% of total currency to D+I via an initial coin offering, to fund the building of a viable rental platform. Coins are given to users for transacting on the platform, and distribution follows a stepped S-Log curve, with higher reward for early adoption and lower reward for adopting a more mature platform during later stages of growth. Users capture 90% of currency awarded in each “step”, D+I captures 10%. During the growth stage, fees are similar to existing platforms: ~15% of transaction value. The fee, net platform operating expenses, represents user ownership, which is returned to the user in coins.
In initial stages the platform won’t need to be functionally perfect, or as user centric as similar leading platforms, but it would improve over time. Early users would be compensated, via favorable ownership, for being early network adopters. While imperfect is okay in the beginning, the platform should be capable and reliable. Basic shared rental platform development estimates range $100-200k; crypto development and distribution capabilities will also need to be factored into cost. To be conservative, a target amount of $500k should be raised via an initial ICO that represents 10% of total coins. This amount is only a preliminary estimate. The platform may need to be built with some traditional web 2.0 components. There will be a vision for transition to full decentralized building blocks, as the reliability of decentralized applications improves at sufficient scale.
Look forward to any thoughts or feedback from the community!