HireGo; Peer-to-Peer Vehicle Rental

ali11159 (25)in #blockchain • 6 years ago

In a rapidly-decentralising world there is a strong motivation to upset incumbent,
centralised services and to create user-oriented alternatives. This paper presents a novel
solution to peer-to-peer vehicle rental that leverages smart contracts to ensure user
security and transparency.

Introduction

With the advent of the sharing economy, there has been a sudden and dramatic rise in the
popularity of private rental. The Airbnb and Uber platforms, the two most-cited examples
of this economic shift, allow millions of users to lease their property or services to others in
exchange for a fee.
The private rental industry, a subset of the sharing economy concerned solely with the
lease of property, is a fast-growing sector. Private vehicle rental alone is estimated to reach
a worth of $90B by the year 20201
. This growth has spawned the creation of platforms that
facilitate the lease of tools, cars, drones, photographic equipment and construction plant,
to name but a few.
Vehicle rental makes up a large proportion of the private rental sector and is mostly
dominated by a small number of platforms. Turo is a market-leading application that
boasts a user base of over 2 million2
. This platform, not unusually, charges an enormous
25% fee for transactions - with some platforms raising this as high as 35%. There is a
distinct lack of choice and competition within this arena.

Application :

HireGo is building a decentralised, peer-to-peer marketplace that allows its users to lease
their vehicles in a trustless and secure environment. The marketplace leverages the
Ethereum blockchain as both a public ledger for lease transactions, and for conducting the
transactions themselves, using a smart contract framework.
The HireGo marketplace provides a directory of vehicles available for hire. Users are able to
select an appropriate vehicle, secure it for their desired period and settle the payment, inapp,
using the HGO token - an ERC20-compatible cryptocurrency built for the purpose (see
HGO Token). Vehicles listed on the marketplace are crowdsourced from HireGo users and
can be easily added in-app; additional tools are available for “power-users” making larger
numbers of vehicles available.
HireGo has been designed with simplicity and security as a first priority. Payment is made,
in advance, and held in an escrow contract on the Ethereum blockchain; in the event of a
dispute between users, a trusted party, such as the dedicated HireGo resolutions team, will
be able to make the final judgement. Reviews and comments made by users will also be
stored on the blockchain, creating an indisputable, trustworthy record of a user’s conduct.
These technologies are handled natively by the HireGo application and all technical
complexity is hidden from the user.
To provide additional peace-of-mind, the marketplace will also offer various insurance
options for users. These insurance packages, provided by a trusted industrial partner, will
ensure that vehicle owners are protected from unexpected collision or damage.
As with payment and review, the rental transactions and vehicle listings are conducted via
the Ethereum blockchain. The HireGo applications provide a gateway for accessing this
data in an intuitive manner and will create and send the necessary transactions, eliminating
any potential friction for the user - no knowledge of the blockchain is needed to use the
marketplace. When a user enters into a rental contract the application will interact with the
appropriate smart contract on the user’s behalf, parsing responses and interacting with the
system using a pre-defined and public protocol. Importantly, users retain control of their
private keys and, at no time, is this broadcast to HireGo or any third-parties.