Hail A Ride, Rideshare, And the Fundamentals of Blockchain Intervention

The Need for a Blockchain-Driven Ride Share

Anybody with a smartphone and one of these company’s application can easily communicate with logged drivers to order for rides that correspond to the routes of operation of that particular driver. 

It is general knowledge that ridesharing has gradually crept into our lives and culture and become integrated into our daily movement and way of operation. 

The application network serves as a platform to develop a sense of responsibility and trust between the drivers and the passengers.

There are now companies that have risen above order and serve as the frontier for this industry.  Companies like Uber and Lyft have erupted in popularity and financial alike.

The Multi-billion Dollars Business

Typically, companies like Uber and Lyft has become household names and risen to the status of top brands and companies to be reckoned with around the world.  

They are the top players in the space of ridesharing, with Lyft being valued at $15.1 billion and Uber valued at about $72 billion.

Those are large chunks of market share and these platforms have weathered the storms of criticism until now.

Although opposition to ridesharing services has come under the light of skepticism in functionality and structure, more needs to be done.

Uber, for example, being banned in major cities around the world like Barcelona, Vancouver, Frankfurt, and some other cities. 

The major antagonists to ride share service companies have been Public transport services and Taxi companies, as ridesharing takes away a large chunk of their consumer market. 

Although right now, is not an only taxi and public transport companies that they have to be cautious about because they are on a route to being out of the market by new innovative companies using Blockchain technology to revolutionize the space. 

These big companies hence face a giant hurdle in terms of Blockchain technology and how it can seriously hurt their business model.

What Does Blockchain Do?

Blockchain has become quite popular in today’s world probably because of bitcoin and it’s outrageous pricing in 2017, but let’s talk about the blockchain framework itself.

 So, blockchain offers a decentralized, open, and distributed ledger that records transactions between two entities inaccessible, retrievable and permanent fashion.

 Each of this growing transaction is linked to one another using cryptography.  These transactions are extensively secure and usually do not require the third party and hence are more cost-effective.

They could be much cheaper than traditional ridesharing platforms and therein lies the punch that could potentially knock out the big players like Uber and Lyft.

How Blockchain can Influence Ride Share

Talk about a disruption much like the Internet did in the late 1990s or the airplane by the Wright brothers in 1903. 

Blockchain is here to stay and is currently reshaping and redefining the ways people view and understand companies & industries today. 

The ridesharing landscape is not left out on the list of industries being disrupted.  Of course, the only major hold back for now is worldwide adoption of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

These companies, Uber, Lyft, Wings & Sidecar operates a centralized system.  They are actually called Aggregators because what they do is, they serve as intermediaries between the drivers and potential customers.

The customers or passengers order for a ride on the company’s application on their smartphones with specific directions and the company supplies a list of drivers with different ratings for you to select from.  

Then you choose the driver and pay through the same application on your smartphone.

The company then receives the money, take a percentage and pay the driver. Hence these companies serve as a centralized site for the linking and completion of the transaction.  

They usually have the software, routers, and servers for reception and distribution of these orders.

What the blockchain framework can do in this space is to eliminate the middlemen or intermediaries, in this case, being Uber, Lyft, or Wingz. Blockchain creates a decentralized ledger that stores transactions securely in blocks.

And each block having a time stamp of the previous one so that they are linked, and one cannot be accessed without going through the other.  Hence, this provides a fortified and impenetrable network.

Due to the fact that the data is not stored in one place but dispersed through a network of computers, there is no aggregator or centralized unit needed.

Providers of driving services can simply provide a profile of the routes they cover ratings by previous customers, charge, and connect straight to passengers on the blockchain platform 

The passenger can request a service, then the Blockchain platform could filter according to the categories and produce a list from which he can choose from. 

Although there are still some touches to be added to this model before it becomes functional. But it’s a highly better alternative to the traditional. 

The transaction or payment end can be done through the peer-to-peer payment technology already built into the system.

Regulation of Ride Share Companies

These rides share service companies have come under heavy criticism to be regulated by a designated government body.

Reason being that there has been reports of cases where drivers have assaulted and been violent toward passengers, there has also been much talk over the inspection  of Uber vehicles to ensure the safety of users of the platform and insurance coverage of the vehicle.

Also, there is the fee that the companies deduct from the payment before paying the drivers.

All these can be highly minimalized with blockchain as there would be little or no charges as the transaction would occur directly between the drivers and passengers, and there would be more stringent measures to monitor insurance covers and the general safety of Users.

Conclusion

It is certain that the ridesharing space is going to disrupt as the full adoption of Blockchain services begin to play out in the coming decades and traditional rideshare service companies need to take note of this or else they would be out of business by this force.

Blockchain-driven rideshare service is going to be a plus to the services being offered and hopefully, will be the change that people want to see.