Critical Analysis: Swarm City
Just like nearly every other new and exciting crypto-based project, Swarm city was born out of a vision to improve an aspect of life as we know it by creating a decentralized version of it.
Swarm City has just released it’s boardwalk integration which is the second phase of this crypto project, soon after will follow their storefront phase.
This is going to be my most critical analysis of a crypto project to date, and I’ll explain why in a bit.
SwarmCity is currently # 74 on coinmarketcap
* Price- $4.53 per coin
* Circulating supply- 6 million coins
* 24 hour volume- $1.6 million
* Market cap- $31 million
Swarm city has been described by one of its contributors, Matthew Carano as “a decentralized commerce meta-platform.”
Before it rebranded into Swarm city, it was called Arcade City.
This project was created by a man who was an Uber driver who was sick of being harassed by the local taxi drivers in New Hampshire, to the point where he decided to create his own true peer to peer ride sharing organization.
Now a quick google search will reveal to you that this man had a flair for bad business ethics. So with this in mind I can’t help but have an extra critical eye on this project. Even though there is now a new lead man in charge, Bernd Lapp, there’s been an issue with the early investors of the token sale that has yet to be resolved.
Despite the negative beginnings and some issues being swept under the rug, this project does have some promising applications.
They are definitely focusing more on ride sharing at the moment, but this platform has the potential to unleash a whole new way for freelancers of all sorts to connect with a new way to make money.
Here is a basic summary of how Swarm City will work:
Communities will be formed using swarm city’s hashtag groups.
These groups will be monitored and regulated according to the individual who initialized it.
That individual will be responsible for dealing with conflict resolutions and other discrepancies within their created hashtag.
Each successful transaction that you are a part of will reward you with a positive reputation point. Your reputation does not transfer from one hashtag to another.
If you want to request a service, let’s say you need a ride, you will post your ride request in an appropriate hashtag, including your location and destination with the amount of SWT you want to pay for the ride.
You’ll receive counter-offers from those willing to drive you and then you choose who you want to do business with.
In order to insure that neither party will desert the transaction- both you and the driver will deposit the amount agreed upon into a smart contract and once the ride is complete the funds will be released and sent to the recipient.
At this point, the newly released boardwalk phase is open to the public.
Users can begin to gain reputation points in the #pioneer hashtag.
It’s pretty simple and straightforward interface and it is important to note that Boardwalk is not the final stage for Swarm City- which may have caused some confusion for eager investors thus resulting in a dip in price immediately following the boardwalk release.
One issue that I do see with Swarm City is the fact that it is a ride sharing application, meaning it is reliant on users geolocation.
The problem I see with this is the fact that crypto has not seen mass adoption yet, and the chances of having a concentrated area with crypto users seems unlikely at this point.
Consider this: Swarm City’s competition includes well-known companies like Uber and Lyft, and they don’t require their customers to learn how to use a whole new form of money and there are plenty of drivers around that are available to give them rides within minutes.
It’s easy to see that for right now, Swarm City has an uphill battle to establish a solid user base.
Swarm City could on the other hand prove to be like Steemit, which introduces people to crypto through a motivation to make money by using the platform and forming social groups which gives the platform the network effect necessary to ensure long-term success.
Down the road when there are more people familiar with crypto, I believe that Swarm City has a great chance to be a high traffic platform.
I’d like to thank Joshua in the swarm city slack channel for answering my questions. If you have any questions or are curious about the progress of this project, their slack channel is a great place to ask.
Next in line for Swarm City is the Storefront release, which will begin the ride sharing application and eventually lead to more applications for it’s user base.
Additional Reading/Sources:
SwarmCity Website
Boardwalk Release Overview
SWT Contributor Matthew Carano Speaks about SwarmCity
CoinTelegraph Article on SwarmCity Rebranding
SwarmCity GitHub
I don't know much about Swarm City - My main concern is along the lines you posted above - but more to do with personal safety. The requests will be public right? We saw issues of robbery etc with Pokemon Go. What happens when you broadcast that you're at X location waiting for a ride with a smartphone in your hand? particularly if that location is a bit shady.
Also what about other concerns for instance posting that you need a ride from your house to the airport. Now people know the address of someone who wont be home.
Or just stalking type activities if someone knows your account name they can follow you right?
What about background checks for drivers. Or issues with riders causing damages? theft? insurance?
The whole thing sounds like someone just thought "Uber on Blockchain = money"
I was gonna say something about twitter and tweeting and hashtags for taxis but it didn't make any sense and you summed it up perfectly. Thank you for finding the right words. upvoted and followed @schro and @heiditravels. Keep it up!
I have the same concerns about the insurance side of the drivers/riders situation. The best answer I could get was that the creator of the hashtag group is responsible for all conflict/resolutions. So I take that as pretty much use this at your own risk. I think Swarm City has much more potential using this idea for other ways to connect freelancers with jobs rather than trying to compete with Uber.
I kind of agree, but Matchpool might be (at least) an equally sound option for those kinds of connections. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of Uber, especially after listening to this episode of the Dollop podcast about the company. I'd love to see some decentralised competition and think it could be great.
But personal safety/security etc for drivers and riders needs to be one of the primary considerations of the tech itself. Not a "Oh the guy that created the Hashtag #NeedaRide, Username xxX420NoScopeXxx Will be responsible for the injuries you sustained as a result of your drunk driver" etc. Sounds like the whole project could be destroyed by a single incident like this.
You're right about that :)
It's a shame and I hope they address these issues as the development progresses.
Edit Also despite my little rant, thanks for asking questions and providing easily accessible info for everyone. I appreciate it as do many others.
Well with Uber the drivers have no public carriage licence, so they are effectively uninsured compared to proper hackney carriages; companies in the UK advise employees not to ride in Uber because the employer has a duty of care to provide a safe work environment, and because Uber is unlicenced thats a problem.
So for Swarm City here, regulations actually can help them. Its a funny old world :)
Nice job Heidi!
Very precise and intelligent analysis of the SwarmCity.
I just got an uber ride for $2.50... why would anyone want to get into this business? One day rides will be free and they will just force you to watch ads in the back seat.
great vid
Interesting concept and hopefully it will pave the way for other locations. Not sure about the name though, sounds like a shark attack type movie.
Great Breakdown @heiditravels
Interesting Project. Going to Dig Deeper into this one, Thanks...
Interesting developments. Thanks as always for all your great Videos. (PS You are stunning! :)
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Down 20% this week. Arcade city already dead...24h volume $2....
Project brings interest and always your useful articles (good luck)
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