Airbnb, an online marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world, has hinted that it could consider blockchain technology to help improve user trust.
Speaking to City A.M., Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder of Airbnb, shared his views on a number of topics. When Harriet Green asked him about blockchain technology, which can help build trust in a given network by underlying it with an immutable database, Blecharczyk replied:
“I think that, within the context of Airbnb, your reputation is everything, and I can see it being even more so in the future, whereby you might need a certain reputation order to have access to certain types of homes. But then the question is whether there’s a way to export that and allow access elsewhere to help other sharing economy models really flourish. We’re looking for all different kinds of signals to tell us whether someone is reputable, and I could certainly see some of these more novel types of signals being plugged into our engine.”
The services offered by the company are available in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries. Guests and hosts verify their IDs by connecting to their social networks and scanning their official ID or confirming personal details.
