ORIGIN – Sharing Economy Marketplace Blockchain Protocol?

ORIGIN is the new platform for the sharing economy without intermediaries. It is a protocol for creating sharing economy marketplaces using the Ethereum blockchain and IPFS.

The main objective of ORIGIN is to empower developers and businesses to build decentralized marketplaces on the blockchain. Their protocol makes it easy to create and manage listings for the fractional usage of assets and services. On ORIGIN platform, buyers and sellers can discover each other, browse listings, make bookings, leave comments, reviews, and much more.

Building Your Business On ORIGIN

Whether you are a freelance photographer, apartment owner, bikeshare supplier, or an existing sharing economy business, ORIGIN makes it easy to do business on the decentralized web. It is time to replace the middlemen. On the platform, buyers and sellers will be able to share the 20-30% transaction fees that currently go to companies such as Uber, Fiverr, Airbnb, or Getaround.

ORIGIN Features

Smart contracts: will lead to secure and reliable payments directly from one party to another.

Protocol schemes: support hundreds of listing types, including custom-made verticals.

Open and shared data: will encourage innovation by developers and businesses

Identity verification and reputation data on the blockchain: will ensure safe and reputable partners

ORIGIN Roadmap

May 2017

• Ideation and demo
• DApp development

September 2017

• Product brief and whitepaper released

December 2017

• Launch alpha on Ethereum testnet

April 2018

• Public beta and public token sale

4QTR 2018

• Expected launch of third-party DApps

2019

• Fully decentralized services and governance

ORIGIN seeks to create a sharing economy marketplace and a set of protocols that will enable buyers and sellers of fractional use goods and services such as car sharing, service-based tasks, home sharing, and others to transact on the distributed open web. Using the Ethereum blockchain and Interplanetary file system (IPFS), the platform and community are decentralized allowing for the creation and booking of services and goods without traditional intermediaries.

An excerpt from their product brief states:

“Each marketplace operator controls a valuable, but closed store of user and transaction data. We believe users should be able to own and control their own data. We also believe that transparency is critical for trust. Too often corporations control access to their users own data for their own benefit…..With the blockchain, everything is public and immutable, so transparency is a default feature.”

ORIGIN Conclusion

The platform aims to build a large-scale commerce network that will transfer direct financial value (listings, transaction, and service fees) from large corporations such as Airbnb, Postmates, Craiglist, and more to individual buyers and sellers. To achieve the goals, the platform is built on an open, distributed, and shared data layer to promote transparency and collaboration. In addition, the ORIGIN platform is being launched with incentives from the outset to encourage other technologists, businesses, and consumers to contribute and extend the community.

The team at ORIGIN anticipates a wide collection of vertical use cases such as short-term vacation rentals, freelance software engineering, and tutoring for hire. They believe that together, it is possible to create the internet economy for the future.