Decentralized Uber for Everything

From the government-controlled economy to a decentralized peer-to-peer society

 

Students for Liberty Regional Conference, Prague 2021

Pavol Lupták

Who Am I?

  • Cryptoanarchist & voluntaryist focused on technology and society hacking
  • Certified IT security professional, founder of IT security hacking companies (Nethemba, Hacktrophy)
  • Co-founder of Bratislava's and Prague's hackerspaces (Progressbar & Paralelni Polis)
  • Responsible for multiple libertarian & digital privacy projects (including HCPP cryptoanarchist conference, NepracujemeProStat)
  • Member of Czech contemporary anti-government artistic group Ztohoven
  • Now, fully involved in Liberation.Travel project

Sharing economy facts

  • All customers & service/product providers benefit from the sharing economy application - it decreases transaction costs
  • The governments "license" monopoly protects the "licensed businesses" (taxi drivers, hotels, ..) and legally blocks new kinds of mutually-voluntary businesses (e.g. Uber, Airbnb, ..)
  • Uber is prohibited in many cities (Bratislava, Budapest, Barcelona,...) or highly regulated (Berlin)
  • Airbnb is regulated or completely prohibited in many cities (Barcelona, Berlin, ..)
  • People lose  a cheap and easy way of ride-sharing or shared accommodation as well as providing this service to other people

My Uber story in Colombia

It is easy to ban Uber by the government or city municipalities because

  • It has a centralized infrastructure and application

  • It uses government-issued business licenses

New technology as a radical game changer

  • Decentralization

  • Crypto-currencies

  • Reputation systems

  • Escrow services

  • Decentralized legal system

Imagine decentralized Uber

  • Based on a decentralized blockchain

  • No centralized infrastructure or database that can be easily shutdown by the government

A lot of attempts to implement decentralized ride sharing

 

  • Mostly based on the Ethereum blockchain

  • Still a very simple application used by only few people (Arcade.City is the most mature)

  • We can expect more decentralized and more mature blockchain-based applications of sharing economy

  • It is only a question of time

But... Wait!

 

The government cannot shutdown the decentralized Uber, but they can force centralized payment providers (VISA, MasterCard) to stop accepting payments between the customers and providers!

It's time for cryptocurrencies!

  • All payments can be made using fully decentralized crypto-currencies that cannot be regulated or shutdown

  • Ideally using anonymous crypto-currencies (Monero, ZCash, Bitcoin Lightning) that cannot be tracked and seen by the governments

Strike wallet

  • Launched and tested in Salvador

  • You make USD transfers inside of Bitcoin blockchain only

  • No taxable events, but KYC is a problem! 

  • Super fast (Lightning)

  • Immune against crypto volatility

  • Perfect candidate for micro payments in the decentralized Uber

But... Wait!

 

The government can close the business license of Uber in the given country and legally stop doing their business!

Let's switch to DAOs!

  • New concept of fully decentralized autonomous organization where owner rules / agreements are stored in the blockchain

  • Many existing DAOs - Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Compound, Curve, Aave

  • Since 1st of July Wyoming recognizes DAO as LLC (a legal layer)

But... Wait!

 

Without the government who will care about customer's safety, potential frauds, who will guarantee a minimal quality of the provided services / products towards customers?

Reputation systems

  • They work perfectly even now in Uber, Airbnb, Booking, ..

  • Do you prefer the restaurant which passed the "State food administration" controls or with Michelin star (the private reputation system)?

Escrow services

 

  • Used by all cryptomarkets

  • The transaction is done through trusted moderator

  • It can be easily implemented by multisig

  • Technology eliminates dishonesty

Decentralized legal system

  • "Wisdom of crowd" based on "Schelling Point"

    • You are rewarded when you decide in a similar way like a majority of anonymous judges

    • You are penalized when you have an opposite opinion

    • If you don't know people in the crowd, the best strategy is probably choose "the truth"

  • Kleros provides fast, secure and affordable arbitration for virtually everything.

But... Wait!

 

OK, maybe you can do all of this for Uber, but our society is much more complex with a lot of different services and products....

Uber for "everything"

  • Technically you can build an universal sharing application allowing anyone to offer any services or products to anyone in a trusted way, without 3rd party

  • Described as "Gamma system" by Paul Rosenberg

Fully decentralized application allowing anyone to offer anything to anyone using anonymous cryptocurrencies, reputation systems, escrow services, based on DAO is technically feasible?

This sounds like utopia!

 

Yes! It is definitely possible!

  • We don't need the governments (especially for making trusted voluntary business) anymore

  • The future is a decentralized peer-to-peer society

Decentralized markets

The future is bright!

The future is decentralized!