Cool Cousin and how it will change the travel industry.

WHAT IS COOL COUSIN

Cool Cousin is a mobile application that has taken an original approach to the information overload and biased content problem found in the centralized travelling market. According to its website, “Cool Cousin is shaking up the travel industry with a new kind of travel agency, optimized for Millennial and Gen Z travellers.”
So, how does Coolcousin work? It’s simple. Cool Cousin allows travellers to get on-demand city guidance from like-minded locals they feel will may have similar tastes or mindsets and that can lead them to experiences they will enjoy. The idea is to combine the inherited knowledge locals have about their city with a matchmaking option that guarantees travellers an enjoyable experience that could never be provided by a travel agent.
Once a traveller chooses and connects with one of these locals, known as Cousins in the app context, they can start reaching out to them for personalized city guidance. This includes places to stay, events to go to, where to eat and much more. Connecting with your Cousin can be done prior to and during your travels, ensuring that you can get information on the fly if you’re unsure of what to do or where to go. Once your vacation is over, you can review your Cousin to ensure other like-minded individuals get a chance to connect with him as well.

HOW IT IMPACT THE WAY WE TRAVEL

The Cool Cousin ecosystem is comprised of two entities that are interdependent and tactically separated: The Company and The Community. The Company is responsible for technological and business development that sustain and grow the Community, while the Community creates and oversees content, services, quality assurance, dispute settlements, etc. The fees received from transactions will be divided between the two, where Community funds will be distributed through a Rewards Engine, to incentivize contributors to improve the ecosystem.
Cousins can earn tokens for keeping their guides up-to-date, for editing their profiles, answering travelers’ questions, for promoting Cool Cousin, content creation, answering user questions, onboarding users and Cousins and more. Eventually, Cousins will also earn tokens for platform governance actions such as dispute resolution, content validation, approval of new Cousins, etc. Cousins who wish to expand their services can function as travel agents, offering tailored services to travelers in exchange for tokens.
Travelers can get free information from Cousins on the Cool Cousin platform, or buy tokens to purchase extra layers of info and services. They can also earn tokens for different levels of implicit and explicit engagement, and become contributors.
Users can become contributors who earn CUZ tokens for actions that add value to the platform. Examples include thanking their Cousins and signing in to a spot, to contributing to the growth of the community by taking photographs for spots, flagging inaccuracies, onboarding new Cousins, changing bad photos, reviewing recommendations and promoting Cool Cousin on other platforms, such as social media.
Users who have made enough content contributions that have been accepted by the Community can earn the status of Editor. Editors will validate Contributors’ content corrections in exchange for CUZ tokens.
The Company and the Community
Voting power on the Board will be divided between the Company and the Community, with the former given 35% and the latter 65% of the capacity. Select Cousins—20% of the most active Cousins worldwide who have been live on Cool Cousin for at least 6 months, have been highly responsive to users and have updated their map at least 3 times—will be able to apply to join the Board of Representatives alongside members of the Company, in order to decide on matters of community standards, conflict resolution, sponsored materials, and Rewards Engine policies.
The Community Pool animates Cool Cousin’s internal ecosystem. Just like miners on the Ethereum Blockchain receive a fee for maintaining the network, Community members get a fee for improving the content and supporting service and community standards. The Community Pool is filled with commissions from every transaction in the system. The Reward Engine —a series of smart contracts—will distribute the tokens from the Community Pool to those Community members who contribute to the ecosystem.
The CUZ token supply will be limited to 300,000,000 million units. At first, the company will allocate 21% of its initial token allocation to the Community Pool, that will be distributed gradually over a period of three years. As transaction volume within the community grows, the income from the transaction fees also grows and refills the pool. This is intended to bootstrap the process before the transactions in the system are enough to sustain the Community Pool with fees, and to remove user barriers.
As a liquid and transferrable cryptocurrency, CUZ will allow content creators to grow with Cool Cousin and make a living using their unique knowledge and skills. While traditional online platforms based on user-generated content shut their creators from the company’s revenue, a blockchain-based Cool Cousin treats its community members differently. Every transaction fee will be distributed between the Company and the Community. CUZ tokens allocated to the Community will give its members a sense of ownership of the value they help create.
On the Cool Cousin platform, smart contracts will establish the rules: define the division of power between The Company and The Community, allow The Community to set its standards and accepts members, creating checks and balances to ensure commercial interests don’t taint the content. CUZ will be built on the Ethereum blockchain and comply with the ERC20 standard.

HOW TRAVELLERS AND LOCAL CAN BENEFIT FROM IT

There are numerous way that travellers and local can benefit from it, to increase our level of comprehension, I would like to enlighten us through a question and answer session with one of those that have benefited from this named Itay.

Itay, first question, are any of your co-founders actual cousins?

(Laughs) Ah, no. We're not. No family relation. Cousins, for us, is a term of affection for like-minded people; someone that you trust enough to ask their advice.

How did you all meet?

Well, [CMO] Nadav and I have been friends since high school, and also business partners for more than 10 years in a few different digital ventures. The five of us were working together on a political campaign almost two years ago here in Israel. We saw that we were an efficient team and that we brought the best out of one another, we wanted to keep collaborating, and decided to channel it into our longtime dream that developed into Cool Cousin.

What was the inspiration behind Cool Cousin?

My wife, Roni. She is so open and curious that, every time we went on a trip, she'd approach cool looking locals and ask them for recommendations. Most people wouldn't feel comfortable talking to strangers, so Cool Cousin is a way to build connections between travellers and like-minded locals, giving people the ability to tap into someone else's mind and gain indepth knowledge on their city.
What are you looking for in a Cool Cousin?
What we're looking for is people who have a passion for their city and are willing to meet our content standards: for example, each map should have at least 25 spots and at least 15 words of personal recommendation for each spot.
We also want cousins to be up on local events because users will ask you what's happening this weekend, as well as eager to engage online, and be helpful to the community.

Do they act as guides in real life?

No, not at all. It's not a service about meeting up in real life, the platform wasn't built for that. Everyone is hacking their way into exploring the world, via Instagram, using Airbnb, but we saw a real opportunity in providing fantastic content, we want to facilitate conversation about cities so people can get the most out of their travel experiences.

Can anyone be a Cool Cousin and do they get paid?

People apply online and we go through all the applications carefully. Right now, we don't pay our cool cousins; it's more about cultural currency and sharing what they love about where they live/work. Having said that, they are our biggest assets and we hope they can be well compensated in the future.

HOW COOL COUSIN (CUZ) TOKEN AFFECT ENGAGEMENT

Cool Cousin's solution to all travelling issues is an ERC20 token, CUZ, that it's currently
offering this month in public presale, with a full-scale ICO planned for April.
Establishing a blockchain economy for its community, Cool Cousin says, will enable it to scale smoothly and affordably while confronting the challenges mentioned above. The CUZ token can be used as a reward to encourage community participation and content submission. Blockchain identity verification can prevent bad actors from misusing the platform. And blockchain-based community governance can allow the company to scale smoothly and affordably while giving users a voice in the process and empowering them to weed out scammers and reward the best contributors.
Of course, the CUZ token will also be useful for making payments within Cool Cousin's ecosystem without worry about fees, delayed transactions, or third-party payment integrations and issues. For example, a local “cousin” could offer paid concierge services in return for CUZ tokens (with Cool Cousin taking a small commission), or they could offer travel-agent style booking services – again, payable directly with CUZ.
If any of that sounds interesting, here are the details of the ICO: The CUZ token will be limited to 300,000,000 units, purchasable exclusively with ETH. The exchange rate is pegged at 1 ETH for 3,770 CUZ, with a minimum purchase value of 0.1 ETH. At current ETH prices, that means 1 CUZ is worth about $0.16.
Only a third of the tokens have been set aside for the Initial Coin Offering. The rest are allocated as follows: 24% reserved for future operations, 25% reserved for the community, 10% reserved for team compensation, and 8% for bounties, advisor compensation, and early supporters.
Cool Counsin's blockchain integration is in its infancy, so like many blockchain projects, we'll have to wait and see how it goes. But the app itself has already proven that it has real-world value.
Since its founding in early in 2016, Cool Cousin has quickly ramped up funding and operations, covering more than 60 cities across the globe with a strong army of cousins in each of them. By Q2 of 2017, it had over 200,000 users.
Today, more than half a million people have used the app for their own vacations. That growth rate is phenomenal at 220% from July 2017 to Jan 2018. Interaction between Cousins and have also been rising at a rate of 310%, indicating that Cool Cousin's approach to the travel industry has real appeal.
The company has already raised $2 million in a seed round from Elevator Fund , but the hope is that the ICO can help propel Cool Cousin to the next level while also enabling it to avoid bias and forge a path that is driven in part by its active and growing community utilizing blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
By the end of the year, the team hopes to ramp up its efforts at community building. It will establish a Board of Representatives that will include members of the community and the company. It will represent the stakeholders to bridge any gaps and make important decisions. The board will also act as a tribunal for disputes regarding content and contracts.
Next year, business partners will be integrated into the system to enhance app offerings and provide more options for the users. By 2020, Cool Cousin hopes to be well on its way to mass adoption after four solid years of development. It's a worthwhile concept that already has some traction and a convincing use case for its blockchain and token. This is definitely an ICO adventurous and travel-minded investors should take a look at.

More Information & Resources:
Cool Cousin Website
Cool Cousin WhitePaper
Cool Cousin Telegram
Cool Cousin Reddit
Cool Cousin BitcoinTalk
Cool Cousin Twitter
Cool Cousin Facebook
Cool Cousin Linkedin
Cool Cousin Medium
Cool Cousin Instagram

cc2018