„We could have had it all“ but we are happy even if we only have a piece Trivial.co Follow Oct 31, 2017 · 4 min read

How the sharing economy connects with the tokenization of physical goods on the blockchain.

With the new technologies, business co-operation is gaining economic rationality again. Sharing economy, is a model based on sharing of not fully used resources and services — either for free, or for a fee. Services can be provided both for private individual and business entities. What may be the subject of sharing economy? The most notable examples are accommodation and space (Airbnb), skills (Skillshare, Khan Academy), transportation (Uber, BlaBlaCar).

The attractiveness of shared economy and shared consumption flows from the idea of consumption and use without having to own it. It sounds quite basic and it’s an idea that has been with us since the dawn of history. But today, our approach to property has changed dramatically— more and more of us are starting to understand that it is not necessary to own to consume.

A little bit of statistics.

According to a 2014 PwC survey of adults familiar with the sharing economy, the 81% agreed that „it is less expensive to share goods than to own them individually“ and 57% thinks that „access is the new ownership“. On the other hand, 69% of surveyed consumers will not trust sharing economy companies until they are recommended by someone they trust.. In predictions for this year published by Robert Vaughan, he argues that:

trust will remain the hot topic in the sharing economy and we think 2017 could be the year that the sharing economy starts to get ahead of this agenda. This will likely take a range of forms but one of the most important will be platforms proactively implementing self-regulation.

So the question is: how to assure consumers that services are trustworthy? At the dawn of the commercial internet, the users were using only nicknames to identify themselves. It was met with a critique that the web is dangerous and anonymity gave a sense of security. Now we have a lot of openness, we use our real names, we publish details of our lives in social media and the result is the ability to assess the credibility of the user. But nothing really changed. The internet is as safe as it used to be because it all depends on how we want to use it and what tools do we have for verification. In 2017 we have blockchain and we still love to share — is there a common point? Since building trust in sharing services requires a lot of effort, perhaps we can start with something simpler — like real assets not just services?

And if we are happy to have a little rather than to have it all, why not to test the concept in different areas?

Eric Barry Drasin and Benton C. Bainbridge from Moving Picture Gallery inagurated a specific type of sales model — „portions of this synesthetic performance will be selected and sold as unique editions.“ So they tokenize the audiovisual performance cutted into parts. Their receivers are satisfied to have just only a unique piece of the whole digital. The curators claim that they are working towards the materialization of the digital media art object.

There is another, somewhat similar project that involves sharing and a sense of community. CryptoPunks as a project from Larva Labs is a unique set of collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. Sounds crazy? Well, you can buy one of 10 000 generated algorithmically pixel art images. If we treat the project as a complete set, then by buying a single bitmap we buy some share of the whole project. You can be a part of the CryptoPunks fan group, you can buy, bid on, and offer punks for sale, even if its digital — you are the owner.

Interested in something more material, touchable?

Every time you look at the Van Gogh, you are adding the value of that artwork. Imagine that you could be a part of lucky community which owns a part of Joan Cornella original art piece. You could have some part of this painting presentend through tokens and your social activity will also add a value to this artwork. How? You can share, promote your tokens, play and make different interactions with online community, friends. Possibilities are endless if they can be written in smart contract. That is what we do at Trivial.co, take a look; here you can sign up to the waiting list to use our exchange for tokens backed by real, unique items: https://www.trivial.co/t/trivial/tintin#tab=2

Blockchain, tokens and the change in thinking is due to the trend of sharing economy. Let’s take care for trust between people, and the development of technology will certainly help us. Because now it is possible to monetize knowledge that was previously hard to monetize or which was impossible to monetize.

author: Katarzyna von Alexandrowitsch from Trivial.co