Backpack Travel FAQ
1.
Q: What on earth is Backpack project all about?
A: The main entity of Backpack Travel is Backpack Foundation in Singapore. With a personal digital identity authentication of tourists as a lever of change, Backpack Travel devotes itself to the blockchain application in tourism industry. Its target is to create the very first borderless travel credit consumption platform in the world.
With a combined application of blockchain, distributed storage, biometrics, cryptography, big data analysis and emerging technologies of mobile devices, Backpack Travel is launching a new type of digital authentication called Backpack Travel Shield. It is based on the original passport information as the static data with dynamic superposition of tourists’ travel trajectory. At the same time, Backpack Travel develops an alliance of open sources to enable users to gain access to a variety of travel services. In short, BTA is a global integration of international tourism resources on blockchain, and BTA is replacing the traditional OTA!
2.
Q: What did the project solve in travel industry?
A: BTA solves the pain points in both business end and user end.
For B end service merchants:
A new type of global distribution system with decentralization and disintermediation is built for service suppliers. It does not only charge zero distribution fee from service suppliers but also turns service suppliers into verification nodes.
The service suppliers are exempted from the multi-layer distribution charges incurred when selling their products in the past. They are able to have the service product pricing power and grasp user demand for effective marketing.
The service merchants will be able to establish an effective user loyalty plan on BTA.
For C end users:
A new type of digital authentication for tourists named Backpack Travel Shield has been launched by Backpack Travel team. Users could be exempted from multiple identity authentication permanently on blockchain.
The tourist digital authentication system is used to protect the privacy of tourists. It enables conversion of user personal travel data into travelers’ credit assets on BTA. Tourist credit assets can be applied as personal credit authorization, credit consumption and credit payment on BTA.
At the same time, tourists can obtain POS consumption reward on BTA. Travelers will receive a corresponding token reward upon the completion of consumption on BTA.
On BTA platform, travelers will be able to buy cheaper and more affordable travel products.
Most importantly, personal information of traveler will no longer belong to the platform, it will become the digital assets of the user instead.
Backpack Travel is the first tourism blockchain project to serve both B end service suppliers and C end travel users globally. Based on the underlying technology of the blockchain , Backpack Travel’s BTA aims to create a full-link aviation tourism credit consumption transaction platform.
3.
Q: What are the advantages of this project?
A: The advantages are as follows:
a.Smart contracts is open source, while token share and market role can be queried;
b.It features openness, transparency, commitment; token shareof both the operation team and Singapore Backpack Foundation will have a lock-in period of 3 years;
c.Along with the 16 months of technical development period, the setup of Backpack team has been completed;
d.The development of blockchain underlying technology has been completed by 35%, and the App development is completed by nearly 30%;
e.Project App will be landed in the fourth quarter of 2018;
f.With rich traditional tourism resources and project matching abilities, the practical landing consideration and implementation has been put in the first place by the Backpack operation team;
g.Leading investment institutions include- Quantum Digital Fund Singapore, UN Blockchain Foundation, Pre-IPO Dominant Capital, Digital Chain Capital, Everbright ZTE Fund Management, WanWuZiBen Capital, Everbright Global Capital Management and CLW Hedge Funds.
4.
Q: Is BTA an alliance chain or a public chain?
A: BTA is an alliance chain, and it is beyond most people’s expectation for an alliance chain. The general alliance chain is defined as “partially decentralized, accessible and traded by the public, but unable to verify transactions, or to issue intelligent contracts, requiring a license from the coalition”. The BTA platform has transaction validation and data carrying capacity. In general, whether a common node can verify a transaction, or package a block, is the technical difference between a public chain and alliance chain. Moreover, many projects claim that they are public chains merely because of the user access function.
5.
Q: What kinds of service providers did Backpack Travel dock with?
A: We started with the airlines, hotel and entrance tickets of tourist attractions as our target partners at the first stage. Currently, some of them have signed contracts with us. The progress of the project and the name list of our partners will be updated on our official website.
6.
Q: There are many projects which do not have practical blockchain landing scenarios, and are merely covered by the cloak of blockchain. How could I know this project would be an exception？
A: At present, there are eight business application scenarios of blockchain, in which credit information is one of the most important applications. The core component of this project is tourism credit consumption, and credit consumption depends on credit information technology. The fundamental layer of credit investigation must rely on authentication system. The digital identity authentication system of tourists and the authentication system of the service merchants involved in the BTA platform has been built as an economic closed loop with the aid of blockchain technology. Blockchain is a “machine” that creates trust.. Backpack project is not a project with a cloak of blockchain, but a project with blockchain application as its core.
7.
Q: It is said that blockchain should be disintermediation. Can this project really accomplish disintermediation in tourism industry?
A: It is not realistic to accomplish disintermediation completely in tourism industry at this moment. Backpack Travel is based on tourism industry, we are able to weaken the degree of centralization with the help of blockchain development at this stage. BTA has more advantages in reducing cost and improving transaction speed, and it also has the characteristics of automatic reconciliation and recording. Blockchain is a “machine” that creates trust. The central concept in tourism industry includes global hotel brands and airlines, and we cannot erase their existences as service merchants. If anyone tells you that his/her project can eliminate intermediaries in travel industry, please keep in mind if it needs reconsideration.
8.
Q: After reading through the white paper, I saw only about 50% of technologies are related to blockchain. Is it just a pseudo blockchain project?
A: Blockchain is an advanced underlying technology, yet data storage is not one of its advantageous characteristics. It is newbut it does not have big capacity for data. Nevertheless, the transaction attribute of tourism is very heavy. Passports and selfies information are the static data, and user habits, travel paths and credit degree for example belong to the dynamic data, both of which need to be stored. Public chain projects such as Ethernet also cannot carry such a large amount of data. Therefore, we do need distribute storage for the practical application in the business operation. Therefore, we cannot judge a project as a pseudo blockchain project simply because a project does not use 100% blockchain technology application.
9.
Q: Can the project use blockchain to solve trust issue during travel?
A: Yes. First of all, the static and dynamic authentication information of tourists have formed a trusted personal ID, and the certification and transaction information of travel agencies have also formed a trusted ID. The authenticated ID is recorded continuously in the chain with the information data. From this ecology, we can rely on the trust mechanism of the system to realize borderless transaction.
