Travel tips á la carte: Cool Cousin

The internet is full of fixed menus for everything: must-eats, must-dos, must-sees… especially when it comes to travel tips.
Say you are visiting Istanbul. Regardless of your age, your interests and your tastes, you should get what’s on the fixed menu.
Let me tell you something: Even if you followed all the recommendations on those lists and put a little tick next to each item, you might still not get a true Istanbul experience. I know because I’ve lived in Istanbul almost all my life.
But hey, now you can ask me – you can ask me anything you want to know about Istanbul on Cool Cousin.

Why not on Steemit?

Cool Cousin is not new; in fact, it is one of the fast-growing travel apps, and everyone and their cousin has been using it, so I am sure most of you’ve heard about it. But in case you haven’t yet, it is a travel app and website that allows travelers to take tailored tips from the locals who share their interests.
If you haven’t already guessed, sharing common interests is the key to the tailored tips.
Here’s the thing: You can always come to me for advice about Istanbul on Steemit, too, of course. But why would you want that? I mean, what do you know about me? You can’t actually learn much about me on Steemit, apart from my interest in blockchain applications and movies. You don’t know my job; you don’t know my hangouts; you don’t even know my age. Am I a party girl or married with two children, a history buff or fond of modern art, a shopaholic or a musicophile or a..? You don’t know.
Being in touch with a local in a foreign country is useful in any case, but it is not enough for a fantastic travel experience. Since what type of experience you are looking for is very much a matter of your personal taste, with someone who doesn’t have similar tastes to your own, you could end up at some place really cool, but just not to your taste.
So, in Istanbul -or wherever you are traveling around the world- you need someone who can direct you to the places that fit your vibe.
You need someone whose lifestyle is akin to yours – someone akin to you in some way.
You need your own cool cousin!

Who is this cool cousin?

Cool Cousin’s mantra is “a recommendation is only as good as the person behind it,” so its first priority is to connect travelers to like-minded locals.
The app is easy to use: After clicking on the “Find Your Cousin” link and then the city you are planning to visit – ta-da! – here’s the list of locals along with their bios, Q&A’s and pictures, and they all are willing to help you with already curated city guides.
The rest is up to you. It is an á la carte menu that offers a wide range of recommendations from a wide range of people one of whom is sure cool enough to be your “Cousin.”
Indeed, it is more likely that you will be surprised to ‘discover’ how many Cousins you have around the world.

Defining issue of the age: trust

Sadly, the time for trust is over, even among ‘real’ cousins. We live in a world of lies, now more than ever, with the rise of the Internet. Hiding behind an alias, anyone can build a fake reality. One tragically funny example of this is the story of how a restaurant that didn’t exist became the London’s top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor with fake reviews. When I first came across the article on Forbes, I thought it might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is not! Here is the first-hand account.
We can’t trust reviews, that’s for sure.
We can’t trust biased content on the Internet; even search results are manipulated.
This being the case, how on earth can we trust a Cousin found on an app?
First, they are not hiding behind aliases. They are there with their real names, occupations, photos, locations etc. Their own reputation is at stake.
It is impossible for Cousins to manipulate the network without being noticed. Learning from others’ mistakes, Cool Cousin has a transparent and decentralized network.

Our concept was decentralized, and now so is our technology. -Cool Cousin CEO Itay Nagler

Building a decentralized ecosystem of locals and travelers around the world, Cool Cousin is a perfect fit for blockchain since the very beginning. So it’s no surprise that it has recently entered the blockchain and token economy. The new cryptocurrency called CUZ, “which is created for the exchange of travel services and unique local information” will allow Cousins to earn a living in return for their efforts while travelers are getting personalized services via tokenized, smart contract based platform.
Revolutionizing travel with a sharing economy powered by CUZ, now Cool Cousin is one step closer to its ambition of becoming the world’s largest decentralized travel agency.

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