Give the sharing economy back to the people
The sharing economy
Not so long ago, the sharing economy emerged as a way for people to have more flexible jobs and companies be able to fulfil opportunities without owning the needed material. Drivers working for Uber use their own cars, restaurants cooking for Foodora use their own kitchen, etc… and they decide when they want to work.
We believe technology has helped us create this new model.
We believe sharing economy is a beneficial system for the society.
We believe sharing economy is here to stay.
Its problems
The platforms used in the sharing economy exist to achieve only one goal: connect customers to service providers.
In our philosophy, sharing economy companies should not dictate the way exchanges happen.
We cannot accept their only goal is profit.
We cannot accept they do not care about the physical actors.
We cannot accept rates and commissions are set unilaterally.
We have the ambition to give the sharing economy back to the people.
Our solution
Introducing BlockFood, the first project from the Open Sharing Economy foundation, to free the food delivery market from corporations dictating their law. BlockFood is a non-profit project that will create a platform dedicated to help customers order food from a restaurant and have it delivered at home in a fairer way.
Reduce the middleman importance
Our goal is to reduce the importance of the platform regarding the transactions by using smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.
Transactions will go as follows:
- A customer orders food from a restaurant. It charges a smart contract with BlockFoodTokens and upon completion of the order, the BFT are distributed to actors participating in the system, in proportion to their participation:
- Restaurants get most of the money,
- Couriers come in second,
- BlockFood sets a commission rate that reflects exactly the cost of the operation, and
- BlockFood ambassadors get a fixed percentage as commission.
All payments are done using BlockFoodTokens, freeing the system foundation from historical banks, while preserving possibility for users to use the service with fiat currencies.
- Customers can pay in BlockFoodTokens with their online wallet, or
- Customers can use fiat currencies ($, £, €, …), automatically transformed in BlockFoodTokens.
Create courier cooperatives
Couriers are essential actors from the platform. While learning and experiencing how current platforms treat their couriers, we saw the importance of creating a better system for the couriers.
This is the goal of courier cooperatives, structures that allow couriers to exist as a group instead of mere individuals. The couriers joining a cooperative will be able to take decision as a group and thus have more weight in the discussions.
Allowing this kind of grouping is essential for the balance of power in the platform.
Have open boundaries
The BlockFood platform will give restaurants the possibility to integrate an easy-to-use ordering form directly on their website. This will help them easily set up a connection between their menus and their customers. The diversification of entry points will maximize the exposure of the BlockFood platform.
The BlockFood platform will be opened to third-party interfaces. Instead of creating strong boundaries between our data and the world, third-party developers will be able to create innovative applications using the BlockFood platform. A developing contest will be organized to promote BlockFood and invite developers to create original applications.
Every aspects of our model is detailed in our white paper that you can find on our website.
Now what?
We are at a unique moment in history.
We the people have the opportunity to set a better future for our sharing economy.
Now is the time.
Help us create this better future.
Visit us at https://blockfood.io.
Yours truly,
Conrad Lelubre
BlockFood and Open Sharing Economy foundation founder
