Jul 07, 2016 at 14:53 // Business

Marinos Kokkinos Author

All of us like to travel, this is the main reason that a lot of sites have given travellers the opportunity to book with cryptocurrencies.

The following idea has brought this project to life by creating a travel club for members with benefits and more.

Drachmae Project Founder Lee Gibson Grant gives an interview to CoinIdol:



CoinIdol: What made you start the Drachmae Project last year?



Lee Gibson Grant: “When we originally created Coinstructors as a consultancy, many people submitted some really good ideas but these could not be realized for various reasons - either funding or some other obstacle. We realized that, although the blockchain technology and the ideas seemed solid, there was something else. Massive success stories in conventional technologies were contrasted by grandiose ideas fielded by the crypto community that were just not making progress. There was clearly a massive disconnect between the crypto technologists and real world users. So my curiosity kicked in, and the events in Greece in April 2015 offered many problems that promised to be addressed by blockchain solutions. Coinstructors was closed down and now I am enjoying the pursuit of provable use cases for blockchain.”



CI: What is Drachmae Travel Club and how did you come up with the business model?



Lee Gibson Grant: “Drachmae Travel Club is a take-away from the use cases explored in Greece. It provides a simple way for regular users to use a digital token and blockchain technology without getting caught up in the technology. It also offers a very lucrative business model, even with low membership volumes. What is of key interest is what we are doing under the hood. The solution can be expanded across the travel industry, and into other travel clubs, as a way of reducing costs and exploiting Big Data in a meaningful and commonly profitable manner.



What will make the travel club unique is the way the 10,000 tokenized memberships of “DClub” work. In principle the token owner becomes a digitally enabled, co-owner of the Club. They gain digital voting rights in the business, and have a say in how budgets are allocated. They can receive gifts and rewards as travel club founders. The memberships are exchangeable and people are not limited in the number they can own. We see a healthy secondary market developing for the memberships.



First Release of 5,000 @ 10$ - Each Membership purchased receives 250 DT Tokens



Second Release of 3,000 @ 15$ - Each Membership purchased receives 200 DT Tokens

Third Release of 2,000 @ 20$ - Each Membership purchased receives 150 DT Tokens

One of the opening benefits, for example, is that founder members will be able to vote for a total rebrand.

Members receive valuable benefits built into the membership that they can use, not only while on holiday, but locally as well. The primary objective of the business model is to provide every-day savings and discounts.



A list of benefits can be found here. Announcement from our Travel Club Partner.





CI: What is the purpose of releasing your DT Token over NXT?



Lee Gibson Grant: “Drachmae Project is based on tested use cases, so it’s very different to normal cryptocurrencies. I do not see the point in building something that has no use and cannot be used by people. Therefore developing use cases around technology and human interaction are key. In many cases by exploring the use cases you consequently find alternative models, just like the case of the tests in Greece.



The ultimate goal is to build a crypto following and a network, that is backed up by non-crypto users that do not even realise, or care, that the business and services rest on top of such technology. This will result in a steady and sustainable building of trust in the technology.



Eventually the use cases will become self-sufficient, realizing viable revenues, and will add value to the DT Token. My E-Drachma White Paper explains the internal self sufficiency of the services.



DT Token is available on the C-Cex Exchange currently, and hopefully will be available on other exchanges later on as DT Token matures further.



The announcements by NXT of the upcoming release of Ardor Child Chains provides new Blockchain Technology use cases to explore. DT Token will be moved across so that DT Token has its own unique, decentralized blockchain with NXT features cross pollinated to DT Chain nodes providing jurisdiction control for big data, KYC/AML and most importantly Digital Identity with voting. This has not been attempted to date in the crypto space, disappointingly so. This is largely due to the fact that one day blockchains will need to interoperate across networks like Telecoms companies do.”



CI: Tell us more about DT-Chain and what makes it different?



Lee Gibson Grant: “DT-Chain was conceived through extensive exploration of existing blockchain solutions, from Bitcoin, through NXT “Ardor”, and Ethereum. We found that there is a strong requirement for several features that other blockchains were either weak on, or unable to deliver. A big one was speed and the ability to support many concurrent transactions. Then there was the ability to segment data and capabilities, and restrict ownership and privacy of data to particular groups, while retaining global interoperability. We formed the conceptual form such a blockchain should have, thinking we would have to build it from the ground up. Fortunately we came across a partner who was already far advanced with their solution, and it matched what we were looking for. So we concluded a strategic partnership that now places us at the forefront of enterprise grade blockchain developments.



DT-Chain therefore offers the following.

● Sub-second transactions

● High throughput

● Unlimited data capacity

● Geographic awareness

● Fencing based on geography, node grouping, permissioning

● Node security based on hardware secured private keys

● Easy interoperability and use of conventional technology and solutions

This gives us the capability to build out almost any configuration for any conceivable blockchain solution. Perfect for our efforts to quickly prototype and test solutions, and then potentially commercialize them.”



In conclusion the vacation industry is a gigantic industry and it seems that crypto has taken over. The ecosystem of businesses and formations offering travelers Bitcoin and crypto deals is becoming ever more stylish.

