In an era where technology is advancing so rapidly, it may come as a surprise how primitive many administrative processes still remain today.

Excessive paperwork, slow payments, and reliance on third parties for execution of contracts all remain pain points in today’s processes, especially in the luxury market.

Processes such as those for renting a superyacht require an exhaustive list of steps and third-parties, which can be quite overwhelming:

As is evident in the process flow above, there is much room for improvement. Condensing steps or simply eliminating some of the administrative work would make a world of difference for those parties involved.

What is a smart contract?

Smart contracts are lines of code stored on a blockchain, which are automatically executed when predetermined conditions are met. Smart contracts provide a whole host of advantages over traditional processes, including:

Trust and security: Being based on distributed ledger technology, the integrity of documents involved in smart contract processes are greatly improved. Due to the tamper-proof nature of blockchain, corrupting, stealing, or destroying contracts and other documentation is made near-impossible.

Smart contracts themselves are also impossible to alter, making sure that the original agreement executes as was intended.

Elimination of third parties: Smart contracts also remove the need for intermediaries in many situations. Verifications by third parties are not required, and executed automatically by code instead. This can significantly reduce the time and costs associated with manual third-party verification processes, and give full control to the original parties.

Automation and interoperability: Smart contracts are also able to automatically interact with each other, which enables them not only to replace single links in a sequence of processes, but many of them simultaneously. Rather than enduring the slow handover of information between various third parties, the successful completion of one smart contracts can automatically trigger the next one.

Theoretically, entire networks could be created with smart contracts, which operate in a completely autonomous way.

Using smart contracts in the luxury niche

Elitium has deployed its own native currency: the EUM Coin. This currency makes it possible to provide pre-coded smart contracts which can be customized in accordance with any sort of renting agreement required on the Elitium platform.

As touched on earlier, one perfect example of this lies in the super yacht-rental process associated with one of Elitiums key partners, Boatsters. What was formerly a very lengthy and extensive process involving many parties can be simplified into a much quicker and more automated one:

Contracts and documents signed & placed on blockchain Tenant’s payment is escrowed, and they are provided with a private access code for the yacht. Tenant uses the code to access the yacht, automatically executing payment to the owner, as well as a percentage fee to the broker. If the code is never used before a predefined time, the owner receives a liquidated damages payment according to the original agreement.

The entire process requires no third party, yet significantly speeds up the process and ensures that both parties receive their end of the deal.

Leveraging the EOS network

Of course, not all platforms are currently equipped with the network speed and flexibility to accommodate the requirements of Elitium’s smart contract processes.

For this reason, Elitium has decided to leverage the EOS.IO technology. EOS is currently considered as one of the most successful smart contract platforms, which enables near instant payments, higher scalability, and the ability to process thousands of transactions per second.

Where other less-scalable platforms may hinder the performance of smart contract with slower transaction speeds and clogged networks, EOS will provide the quick and reliable foundation Elitium needs to provide the greatest efficiency and user-friendliness for its user-base.

The applications are endless

Of course, these smart contracts are not limited to assisting with yacht-rentals. They will play a large role in improving efficiency across the entire luxury niche, especially where applicable to Elitium’s partners and services.

Smart contracts can also be created and tailored for:

Concierge requests and services

Helicopter charters

Jet charters

Limousine and car rentals

Private island rentals

Diamond memberships

Almost any other luxury (rental) agreement

The potential for smart contracts to revolutionize the luxury space is boundless, and Elitium is looking to harness this in as many ways as they can, leveraging the powerful EOS network.