Mission Statement

First, let’s examine Odyssey’s core mission statement and need-driven market value.

“The Foundation’s mission is to build the next-generation decentralized sharing economy & Peer to Peer Ecosystem. ODYSSEY aims to reduce overall operating cost, increase marketplace efficiency and boost ROI of product & service providers in the Global sharing economy & peer to peer ecosystem.”

What is envisioned here is a highly ambitious, long term, technology driven ecosystem that is further integrated into several market verticals and product options. Odyssey continues with the following statement:

“Using blockchain smart contract as well as AI and Big Data, ODYSSEY will revolutionise the ecosystem with the features below:”

One Credit/Trust-Based Protocol for all ODYSSEY ecosystem users:

Decentralized and Minimized Operating Cost

Open Source and Scalable

Trustworthy and Anonymous

Autonomous and Better Compliance

Incentivized Participation

Monetization of services

Peer to Peer Ecosystem Community:

Decentralised and Minimum Transaction Cost

Monetization of services

Better Distribution and Matching

Quicker Transactions without payment barriers

This rather lengthy list continues to break down several key factors of the Odyssey project. From its very core, Odyssey aims to create a decentralized, scalable ecosystem whereby services and products are offered allowing for minimal transaction fees and optimal monetization opportunities.

“Odyssey aims to create a decentralized, scalable ecosystem whereby services and products are offered allowing for minimal transaction fees and optimal monteization opportunities.”

Odyssey continues to explain the key pitfalls with how data is gathered and maintained in current structured services.

“Many sharing economy companies are “data controllers” because they decide how personal data will be collected and how it is used. Controlling and dealing with personal data is integral to the activities of sharing economy platforms. Users may be required to share a range of information about themselves, including their location, address, job or the services they provide or use — and users are becoming more aware of and concerned about the way that their data is collected, stored and shared.”

This point alone conveys many of the current issues faced in the US, Europe and abroad. With centralized storage of personal data and information, security breaches are becoming more prevalent and inclusive, affecting hundreds of millions of users a year. Clearly issues exist and are in need of a swift change.

Paired with the security of private data, Odyssey continues by explaining the issues with current reputation systems, while laying the framework for a theoretical shift in how these systems operate.

“Reputational mechanisms drive the sharing economy. Such mechanisms, conducted over a given service platform, include user reputation, peer reviews and identity verification and are often involved in services in which consumer safety is a matter of life and death. In ride-sharing services, for example, a driver’s history is a significant issue for riders, and a bad driver could kill you. People could list anything, but sharing economy does not have an effective review system yet.”

Odyssey goes on to use AirBNB as an example of a platform that utilizes and allows for comments and ratings on services rendered. It points out, however, that these metrics are open to bias and many times are untrustworthy based on the time of their entry. This brings to light many issues seen with reputation and referral systems throughout many online communities and platforms.

Odyssey continues to extrapolate the complicated nature of review and reputational systems.

“In a wide-ranging discussion covering rapidly changing business models, potential regulatory obligations and consumers’ increasing dependence on reputational feedback mechanisms, economists, industry representatives and academics hashed out what is clearly a complex system.”

The whitepaper continues to explain that sharing is both costly and segmented, with the distribution of monetized incentives unfairly allocated through the current sharing ecosystems available today. This continues to showcase a major problem in online content management and monetization platforms today.

Odyssey aims to change that. So eloquently written, they state,

“However, the sharing economy is not yet interconnected. Every industry has its own central node, its own rules and mechanisms, its own user information and transaction information. This current state of affairs is against the original principle of sharing everything and connecting everything.”

The current state of content sharing ecosystems have lost sight of the original purpose of freely available, accessible, unrestricted information. While utilized on a daily basis, the tech giants of the industry have monopolized the information market under the guise of offering slick features and robust platforms.

This brings us back to Odyssey’s core mission statement, further expanded to state,

“We believe the potential of the sharing economy can only truly be unlocked if all parts are interconnected into a single sharing economy ecosystem. One protocol, a mutually integrated operating mechanism, one value, to achieve a truly efficient and highly self-regulating and self-upgrading ecosystem. ODYSSEY is aiming to utilize blockchain technology together with AI and Big Data to overcome all the obstacles on the road to build a future sharing economy.”

The Infrastructure

A mission statement is one thing, however, the infrastructure and tools necessary to accomplish this is something else entirely. A key difference and focus of the Odyssey whitepaper is a rather extensive explanation of the tools and infrastructure necessary to accomplish this long term visionary goal.

First and foremost, Odyssey proposes the following infrastructure to create and maintain a truly decentralized content and services sharing ecosystem.

An autonomous, high efficiency, low cost, Credit-based, highly incentivized marketplace

Dynamic Economic Stimulation Mechanism to incentivize every individual who participates in the sharing economy’s ecosystem.

Dynamic Economic Stimulation Mechanism to incentivize every DAPP (sub ecosystem) who contributes to the sharing economy’s landscape.

ONE high quality payment network to connect the entire sharing economy.

ONE universal trustworthy Credit-based protocol and single UID to empower the entire sharing economy

Open Source and embracing revolutionary ideals

Roles in the Ecosystem

Within the defined ecosystem, several key roles are maintained for the longevity of the Ocoin structure of operation.

Service Provider: As a service provider, Ocoins will be distributed fairly due to the cornerstone nature of the service provider’s investment in resources, services and products offered. This will further add to the stability and scalable nature of the Ocoin ecosystem

Service Reviewer: As a service reviewer, Ocoins will also be distributed for this role as it is a key influence on the merit of various products and services offered by providers. With a thorough and next generation reputation system, reviewers will be rewarded with Ocoin benefits and Credit, while also being penalized with credit reduction for inappropriate or fraudulently flagged (biased, inaccurate) reviews.

Community Operators: Tying directly into the service reviewer role, community operators are in charge of further ensuring accuracy and effectiveness of the review system within the Ocoin ecosystem. It is noted that they will be selected based on their overall contribution, as well as their overal Ocoin credit score, gained by positive interactions and contributions within the Ocoin ecosystem. Ocoin incentives will be available for direct monitoring and reporting of activities throughout the infrastructure.

Developers: From its very onset, the Odyssey project has defined itself as open source and scalable to the interactive contribution of other likeminded developers. Ocoin incentives will be offered for contributions, bug fixes and sub-ecosystem developments.

Miners: As the final piece to the ecosystem puzzle, miners will be instrumental in the day to day operations of individual transactions. Transaction fees will be received according to the not yet announced Ocoin transaction model.

OCoin plans to develop and implement its own proprietary OCN wallet.

Odyssey Wallet:

As mentioned directly from the white paper,

“ODYSSEY intends to develop the ODYSSEY Wallet, which will handle all ODYSSEY-related transaction activities such as creating the user’s wallet on the Ethereum blockchain (or future ODYSSEY public chain). In the ODYSSEY Wallet API/SDK, all communications are securely encrypted via 256-bit encryption. The Wallet’s private key will be only accessible by the wallet owner. Transactions will only be authorized by the ODYSSEY wallet owner. ODYSSEY does not keep any personal data within its system. The complexity of transaction fees, encryption necessitating private and private key management and alphanumeric addresses may create significant barriers to mass adoption. To address these issues, ODYSSEY will plan to develop simpler authentication methods such as biometric authentication. ODYSSEY will also utilize different solutions to minimize transaction fees while keeping transactions fully transparent.”

Odyssey Credit System:

A clear component of the Odyssey ecosystem is the previously mentioned credit system. Upon first glance it may appear confusing in nature, but upon closer inspection it becomes much clearer to its specific role within the Odyssey infrastructure.

In it’s simplest terms, two factors exist:

MINIMUM Credit for Incentives MAXIMUM Credit Cap

A minimum credit rating is necessary to be obtained before incentives in the way of Ocoin rewards can be acquired.

Minimum vs Maximum Credit System

A maximum credit cap exists, which can be thought of as the maximum positive credit rating you can achieve. With this rating the maximum incentive options are available to you within the Odyssey ecosystem. The simplest parallel to this system is the FICO credit scoring system in use by the United States.

As previously discussed the credit rating will further be instilled and increased via interaction with the ecosystem, contribution, as well as review monitoring and reporting. Feel free to review the original diagram that details this below.