A Sharing Economy and its Applications

An observation of modern market conditions and the analysis of the participants’ behaviour reveals that the current generation of consumers experiences a shift of paradigms and has different preferences than previous generations. Whether changed consumer behaviour is caused by technological progress, a shift in mentality and perceptions, impacts of marketing and media or simply a mixture of different global economic factors — it’s unquestionable that what is requested right now is convenience, comfort and tailored personalized services.

Businesses recognize this trend and react immediately by providing revolutionary solutions with intense focus on user experience and service. In a sense modern markets of goods and services are characterized by an extreme and unprecedented consumer oriented approach. Independent of the sector almost every product is to an increasing extent offered “…as a service”. That is: prepared and organized meticulously with every detail designed upfront to leave potential consumers with as little of required input as possible. Good examples for “…as a service”-solutions are mobility, travelling, entertainment and accommodation. Here many offers exist on the market that are literally ready to use.

Consumers seem to enjoy this evolution. On the one hand they can gladly maintain a high standard of living without necessarily having to take care of unpleasant, inconvenient or complicated tasks by themselves. They can enter a well organized and easily understandable world and concentrate on enjoying the experience they truly long to have. On the other hand, no one is to blame — as humans we are comfortable creatures and in the increasingly dynamic and complex world it is only natural to be relieved when we do not have to manage every part of our lives by ourselves.
As a result a new kind of economy and a new philosophy on the markets emerge: the world is heading towards a sharing economy — where ownership of assets as well as mastering of skills and capabilities becomes very heterogeneously distributed, very granular and divided upon all different members of our society. In an ecosystem where goods are allocated to different participants the need for sharing of resources and services arises.

The path we are going is very good — sharing of resources is economically, socially and environmentally beneficial. However there are two sides to every story: Although the development and emergence of a sharing economy is in general very welcomed but inefficiencies and drawbacks exist. I recommend to have a look at Rustrums’ article about the effects that centralized companies have on our society hidden behind the masquerade of a sharing economy. It is our goal as individuals to understand this evolution better in order to be able to design a truly sustainable system for the future.
We as DriveDeal being part of the blockchain community envision a world where network participants who create value in the ecosystem get rewarded for their contributions. Where utility and value is accrued in the network token instead of the financial capital provided by rent-seeking investors. We want to build the environment where people are rewarded in direct relation to the utility they provide to the whole community. We want to build a decentralized network where sharing is caring — without exploiting our peers.