How might a Duber work?
Could a decentralized, token-backed, system like Duber eventually displace Uber?
That was the thesis supported by Mike Novogratz in a recent interview with Bloomberg.
More about Mike Novogratz can be found here:
In fact he seemed pretty confident that he could do it rather quickly and rather easily:
(The bulk of that is at the end of the video)
Here is how it would work:
According to Mike, Uber is ripe for disruption due to their fat margins, currently in the 30% realm.
Mike said they could create a company called Duber, do an ICO and raise somewhere in the $30-$40 million dollar range, and launch a coin.
The business would operate much the same way Uber does currently, but the prices would be slightly cheaper since it would be decentralized.
So instead of paying say $12 for a ride, a user might be charged $8 or so.
That alone will cause many people to want to use it, but it gets better...
The coin is the game changer.
People will have the option to pay with a Duber coin. The coin will be immediately convertible to cash.
Which means that drivers will get paid in a coin that they can either hold or convert immediately to cash.
Eventually as the network grows, some people will chose to hold the coin and hoard them.
The supply will be limited so the value will start to increase.
Even people that use Dubers will hold the coins so that they can get a ride whenever they need one.
As the network grows, so does the value of those coins.
Then everyone who uses Dubers will start to tell other people to use Dubers because they have a financial interest in the system.
As the system grows so does the value of their coins.
There is very little need to continue to market/advertise as every single user essentially becomes a stake holder/investor in the network.
Mike's exact wording:
"Every user has a vested interest in getting more people into the system."
Talk about giving people an incentive to use your business!
It's not quite as easy or as simple as it sounds right here, but you get the idea of what he is talking about.
The really interesting thing is that Uber just recently disrupted the taxi business, and now just a few short years later, their business model is already in jeopardy from something like Duber coming along and disrupting them.
Stay informed my friends.
Image Source:
https://safenetforum.org/t/duber-decentralise-self-driving/13959
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Interesting concept 🤓👍🤓
I dUber it might work well, because of safety and reputation concerns. Sibil attacks are hard to solve.
Running on a blockchain would be a big plus too in regards to autonomous drivers. Much harder to hack.
All uber does is an app that matches drivers and riders. The same can be done decentralized with reputation systems to make sure safe cars and drivers are highly rated and demand the highest price. Bad actors will have very low rep and few riders will accept them.
A community of compliance people can be rewarded for doing the other things uber does.
I like the idea and definitely think this is one of the area's where cryptocurrency will really thrive in the future.
It sounds interesting but if the supply of the coin is limited and being used to pay for rides the total value of the coin would not rise as much. Unless later on fractions of a Duber coin could pay for a ride. Would like to see a bit more details but I could see something like this working.
Yes, the ride would be set in dollars. It might cost 1 duber to pay for a ride at first, but then later on it might cost .25 duber, all other things being equal.
That is so true. Great job writing this.
They say changes are coming at an exponential pace in technology and society so it will probably happen fast.
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Great concept that would definitely work, believe someone is on to bring it to market.
Agreed. There are several applications for this kind of model right now.
I think that Mike Novogratz has to choose another name for his company, because "Duber" already exists..
Source
Yes, that was just an example of what could be done. :)