Airbnb is looking for the right Bitcoin and blockchain startups

Airbnb has signed a deal to operate a Bitcoin micro-blog, according to four people familiar with the matter. Payment services startup ChangeCoin has acquired key team members.

Airbnb has been looking for suitable Bitcoin and blockchain startups, hoping that Bitcoin technology can help its business, two people familiar with the matter said. Companies like Uber and Airbnb have always been very concerned about enhancing their ability to manage supply and demand, and a powerful open ledger system like blockchain will be of great help in this regard.

According to relevant reports, blockchain is an important concept of Bitcoin. It is essentially a decentralized database and also the underlying technology of Bitcoin. Blockchain is a string of data blocks generated by cryptographic methods. Each data block contains information about a Bitcoin network transaction, which is used to verify the validity of the information (anti-counterfeiting) and generate the next block.

Through a service called ChangeTip, ChangeCoin users can send small amounts of money, or tips, on social networks such as Twitter and Reddit. However, Airbnb seems to be interested only in the company's team.

According to CrunchBase, ChangeCoin was founded by Nick Sullivan, a former Yahoo engineer and a prominent Bitcoin entrepreneur, and has 11-50 employees.

Although many financial companies have invested a lot of material and financial resources in blockchain and announced blockchain-related pilot projects, this topic has not attracted enough attention from consumer technology companies. However, Airbnb recently expressed its interest in this technology. In an interview with CityAM, Airbnb's co-founder and CTO Nathan Blecharczyk said that Airbnb could use blockchain to share user data with other companies.

Airbnb claims that as of the summer of 2015, the company has more than 17 million users. In addition, Airbnb has developed a valuable database of reviews and ratings, where hosts and guests can rate each other's trustworthiness. Blecharczyk told CityAM: "Your reputation is everything on Airbnb, and I think this will be even more true in the future, where you may need to reach a certain reputation to see certain types of rooms."

Blockchain is best suited to addressing trust issues by providing a permanent record of transactions and other data and, in some cases, making that data more readable.

If Airbnb can find a way to ensure that user profiles can’t be tampered with, it could become a trusted form of digital identity, a bit like the profiles that credit bureaus create for each user. As Blecharczyk says, if a user’s identity can be transferred to other platforms, that could be a huge asset. For example, an Uber driver could know if the next passenger has ever vandalized an Airbnb home.

While ChangeTip’s product was successful, it wasn’t enough to sustain the business, and according to people familiar with the matter, ChangeCoin has been looking to sell itself in recent months.

ChangeCoin has raised $5 million since its founding in 2014 from investors including 500 Startups, bitcoin investment firm Digital Currency Group and Pantera Capital, according to Pitchbook.

Airbnb has been looking for suitable Bitcoin and blockchain startups, hoping that Bitcoin technology can help its business, two people familiar with the matter said. Companies like Uber and Airbnb have always been very concerned about enhancing their ability to manage supply and demand, and a powerful open ledger system like blockchain will be of great help in this regard.

According to relevant reports, blockchain is an important concept of Bitcoin. It is essentially a decentralized database and also the underlying technology of Bitcoin. Blockchain is a string of data blocks generated by cryptographic methods. Each data block contains information about a Bitcoin network transaction, which is used to verify the validity of the information (anti-counterfeiting) and generate the next block.

Through a service called ChangeTip, ChangeCoin users can send small amounts of money, or tips, on social networks such as Twitter and Reddit. However, Airbnb seems to be interested only in the company's team.

According to CrunchBase, ChangeCoin was founded by Nick Sullivan, a former Yahoo engineer and a prominent Bitcoin entrepreneur, and has 11-50 employees.

Although many financial companies have invested a lot of material and financial resources in blockchain and announced blockchain-related pilot projects, this topic has not attracted enough attention from consumer technology companies. However, Airbnb recently expressed its interest in this technology. In an interview with CityAM, Airbnb's co-founder and CTO Nathan Blecharczyk said that Airbnb could use blockchain to share user data with other companies.

Airbnb claims that as of the summer of 2015, the company has more than 17 million users. In addition, Airbnb has developed a valuable database of reviews and ratings, where hosts and guests can rate each other's trustworthiness. Blecharczyk told CityAM: "Your reputation is everything on Airbnb, and I think this will be even more true in the future, where you may need to reach a certain reputation to see certain types of rooms."

Blockchain is best suited to addressing trust issues by providing a permanent record of transactions and other data and, in some cases, making that data more readable.

If Airbnb can find a way to ensure that user profiles can’t be tampered with, it could become a trusted form of digital identity, a bit like the profiles that credit bureaus create for each user. As Blecharczyk says, if a user’s identity can be transferred to other platforms, that could be a huge asset. For example, an Uber driver could know if the next passenger has ever vandalized an Airbnb home.

While ChangeTip’s product was successful, it wasn’t enough to sustain the business, and according to people familiar with the matter, ChangeCoin has been looking to sell itself in recent months.

ChangeCoin has raised $5 million since its founding in 2014 from investors including 500 Startups, bitcoin investment firm Digital Currency Group and Pantera Capital, according to Pitchbook.