Peer-to-peer marketplaces are quickly becoming a staple of our world economy. According to PwC, the global P2P economy is expected to generate more than $335 Billion in value by 2025. Leading platforms like Airbnb, Turo, and Upwork act as intermediaries that connect millions of people to transact services or exchange assets with each other. Although these platforms are responsible for accelerating the growth of our global peer-to-peer economy, they are not without their faults.

The platforms charge high commission fees, and often feature deals that are unreliable, lack transparent rating systems, and ultimately hold too much power as the arbiter of all transactions made between participants.

This is why Wono is developing a decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace for rentals and freelancing. The company is essentially creating a cross between Airbnb and Upwork using blockchain technology.

With their blockchain based platform, there are no middlemen, taxes or losses due to currency exchange. Users can act as vendors, customers, deal insurers, and arbitrators, all the while earning WONO tokens for their efforts.

The company is launching an ICO on July 30th with the goal of raising a soft cap of $7m and a hard cap of $20m.

How it works

The WONO platform uses Ethereum smart contracts to facilitate the process of renting out assets under a sharing economy or performing jobs as a freelancer. Users earn and spend Wono tokens within the ecosystem

Users acquire reputation scores and ratings while participating on the platform. Disputes are handled via a process called ‘Arbitrage’, which is a deal cancellation dispute mechanism using decentralized voting that is stored in the Ethereum network as a smart contract.

Physical assets or services offered by users are simply known as ‘Assets’. All the terms for an asset are stored on smart contracts.

There are four types of users on Wono’s platform:

Customer: Customers hire freelancers, order services such as a car ride or a rented apartment, or rent out any assets in possession of a vendor (e.g., gym memberships, gadgets, instruments).

Arbitrator: During a deal dispute or cancellation, the arbitrator is tasked with voting on which party should be fined, and which should be compensated. The Arbitrator stakes their own tokens when voting to ensure that they vote fairly. After the voting process is complete, the arbitrator gets their tokens back plus a bonus, which comes from professional insurers connected to the platform.

Guarantor: The Guarantors job is to confirm that a Deal between 2 parties will be successfully executed without any problems. The Guarantor does not insure the Asset but rather the risk of a Deal cancellation.

The Guarantor stakes their tokens until the deal is successfully concluded. Then they get their deposit back plus a bonus from the insurance part of the Commission.

Vendor: Vendors rent assets and perform tasks for customers in the peer-to-peer economy. Vendors are paid in Wono tokens, which are administered via smart contracts.

There are 4 core components to Wono’s P2P economy:

Space sharing: Combines the concepts of P2P rentals (like Airbnb) with home swapping

Combines the concepts of P2P rentals (like Airbnb) with home swapping Transportation sharing: Uses the Turo/Getaround model where a person can hire or rent out a vehicle for any desired duration

Uses the Turo/Getaround model where a person can hire or rent out a vehicle for any desired duration miscellaneous assets sharing : Users can hire and rent out any assets in their possession (e.g., gym memberships, gadgets, instruments)

: Users can hire and rent out any assets in their possession (e.g., gym memberships, gadgets, instruments) Services sharing : Combine the Freelancer/Upwork model for remote jobs and TaskRabbit for micro jobs.

Deal Structure

A Deal within the WONO Protocol has the following functions:

Registering parties acknowledge and sign off on financial responsibilities

Tokens are transacted between parties during the Deal’s execution and termination

Connection between the Users and the Asset (e., physical assets or services offered)

Connection to the Deal cancellation insurance mechanism

Connection to the decentralized Arbitrage mechanism.

Ethereum smart contracts essentially function as an escrow to independently hold token funds as the terms of a deal are carried out between parties.

The Wono Environment

The Wono environment consists of the following 3 core components:

Wono Protocol: a set of decentralized apps that use Ethereum smart contracts to implement the WONO business model

Wono API: accelerator of the WONO Protocol

Wono Client: official client, a Web application used to work with the Wono API and Wono Protocol

Team

Wono’s team consists of diverse members with strong technical and business backgrounds. They also have an advisory board of blockchain specialists.

Alexander Esaulov – CEO, Founder

Alexander Esaulov is an entrepreneur and a marketing expert. Alexander founded and successfully sold various startups. They are Greeder (a products marketplace with a bargaining option), Alex Games (fitness reality show), Burn to Earn (fitness reality show in the United States), and SPb Fighters (MMA reality show).

Timofey Esaulov Business Development Manager

Timofey Esaulov has 20+ years of experience in management, business development, analysis, and strategy as a CEO in several companies. He was senior supply manager at the Ford Motor Company for more than 10 years. Timofey is in charge of business and financial planning at WONO.

Andrey Chepelev – COO

Andrey Chepelev is the Editor-in-Chief and Project Manager at Kolesa.ru. In four

years he raised the website’s monthly audience from 0.7 million to 2 million and

developed it from a small regional media site into the number five automotive media site in Russia. As a successful executive and media expert, Andrey worked with Alex Esaulov as COO at Alex Games and Burn to Earn.

Advisors

Ian Scarffe Blockchain marketing and general advisory

Lev Lemkov Management Advisor

Alexander Frolov: Blockchain Software Architect

Adil Khan: P2P Carsharing Advisor

Alexander Zhidkov: Works at AirBNB. P2P Home Sharing, Europe

Ignacio Ibaibarriaga: Chile AirBNB biz-dev. P2P Home Sharing, Americas.

Roadmap

Token

Wono tokens are an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain. It is used for the following:

All P2P payments on the platform as an internal currency

Transaction security as a reserve

Crowd insurance and crowd arbitrage.

Token Sale

The company is launching an ICO on July 30th with the goal of raising a soft cap of $7m and a hard cap of $20m.

Pros

On Wono, freelancing and renting cars/houses is a decentralized process that requires no middlemen

Disputes can be handled via a voting system where participants stake their tokens to guarantee fairness

Wono’s platform removes the need for high commission fees paid to centralized intermediaries

The platform features crowd insurance and crowd arbitrage.

Cons

Wono faces competition from freelance/workforce Blockchains like BlueWhale and Moonlight. Wono may need to develop or focus on marketing specific features that differentiates it from these platforms

Decentralizes structure may make dispute resolution process slower than centralized organizations.

Conclusion

Wono is building a decentralized freelance and renting marketplace that will empower individuals all over the world to exchange assets and monetize their skill sets in an autonomous, fair, and secure environment.

With a strong technical team and an advisory board of blockchain specialists, Wono looks poised to redefine the peer-to-peer economy.

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