(VOTE NOW) TravelbyBit – Travel the World and pay with XEM!

Project Proposals
#21

When I read this, i was assuming the project does infact want to build on the NEM blockchain:

"Working on the NEM blockchain

Besides payments, we also want to use the NEM blockchain for our Travel Experience Gift Voucher site. Specifically, we want to explore using NEM’s apostille feature to create a “voucher certificate” system where customers can purchase our vouchers and then use them at various merchants throughout Brisbane. The system involves creating a secure certificate that is resistant to fraud and counterfeiting whilst also listing the various benefits of the certificate to the merchant and the consumer.

Merchants need to be assured that the certificates presented come from an authoritative source and that the ‘enhanced’ or discounted services that they offer are covered by a reputable certificate provider. Customers can have a digital zero-hassle alternative when applying for a travel/tourist/dining discounts. As an extension mosaics created by merchants and accredited to the Apostille account can deliver a consistent stream of business (loyalty program) to businesses.

The preliminary test we have been conducting with the various tools on the NEM blockchain has been very promising. Our developer loves how straightforward NEM is to use."

#22

strongly agree with mexxer on this.

#23

Hi Mexxer you raise good points. It is good that members of the community are studying the detailed value proposition behind these community projects.

Our system is already built and has been running for 6 months. We have contracts with over 40 retail outlets in Brisbane international airport and will be rolling this out to Sydney and Melbourne airports. We now have over 40 merchants across Australia and this is growing each week after our feature on fox news and coin telegraph. This is more than a working prototype. You can keep up to date with our growth on telegram at @travelbybit.

to address your questions:

  1. Will any of the funds provided go towards supporting other non-NEM related initiatives?
    All funds provided will ONLY be used to further NEM block chain initiatives. We fully recognise the funds given are from the NEM community and are for the purpose of creating value on the NEM network.

We are working with NEM APIs for gift vouchers. This is straightforward as NEM makes it easy.

The real challenge and the costs of integration is facilitating payments on the NEM blockchain at a POS level. Providing instant confirmations, maintaining our compliance regime and liquidity pool and price hedging which is specific to each coin. This is in effect a proposal to integrate to a regulated exchange operating under an Australian Financial Services License and Australian AML regulations. We are a crypto to fiat gateway for merchants as merchants can choose to keep xem or to convert to dollars.

I’ll give you another example of the challenges our project team has been working through: Take QR cods: for example the NEM Wechat wallet QR code format is different from the Nano wallet QR code format. You can’t scan and seemlessly send XEM between these two wallets. We have to test all these quirks out and work with the different NEM wallet teams on these projects to get consistency so that when we implement QR code conventions on the merchant side both wallets can work seamlessly.

We believe the credit card merchant system is broken and wrought with fraud which leads to ever increasing costs. Our team is built by volunteers who give their time because we believe peer to peer blockchain enable payments is the future. I agree genuine adoption is a long and hard battle but we have to start somewhere. NEM is in a unique position to be the only coin to help incentivise early adopters by way of a joint discount with retailers. If no one uses the amounts set aside for the community fund then the funds don’t go to us but stays with the foundation. I have spoken to many here and have faith that the NEM community will want to transact in XEM. They just need the opportunity. We can’t all hodl forever = )

#24

I hope we have addressed your concerns with our last response. If you have any other specific queries we would be glad to discuss them. Crypto is a social movement, I’ve often underestimated the support of the community. Since our launch below we have users from all over the world reach out to us. Many enterprises have also approached us including Gatwick airport and Virgin Airlines. As a NEM holder it would be a shame if I failed to bring our community here on the journey with us.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/brisbane-becomes-worlds-first-airport-to-accept-bitcoin/

#25

To be quite honest, i really dont see how the challenges you present can equate to such an amount of xem in costs. To sum up, the challenges your presented with when integrating xem are as you have stated:

We are working with NEM APIs for gift vouchers. This is straightforward as NEM makes it easy.

This is as you say, straightforward, so i probably dont need to say anything on that one.

The real challenge and the costs of integration is facilitating payments on the NEM blockchain at a POS level. Providing instant confirmations, maintaining our compliance regime and liquidity pool and price hedging which is specific to each coin. This is in effect a proposal to integrate to a regulated exchange operating under an Australian Financial Services License and Australian AML regulations. We are a crypto to fiat gateway for merchants as merchants can choose to keep xem or to convert to dollars.

This is also an issue that you face for every coin, as far as i know. So i don’t understand why the nem community must foot this bill, while it was already (i assume) implemented for the other coins you support without assistance. I also assume the cost of this was already factored into your business plan prior to actually starting the project. The latter part, AML, regulations etc, is also a blanket issue that is not nem specific, but applicable to your business whether you accept xem or not, so i dont think it is fair to include this as a reason to justify the funding.

Take QR cods: for example the NEM Wechat wallet QR code format is different from the Nano wallet QR code format. You can’t scan and seemlessly send XEM between these two wallets. We have to test all these quirks out and work with the different NEM wallet teams on these projects to get consistency so that when we implement QR code conventions on the merchant side both wallets can work seamlessly.

I dont argue with this one. The two wallets should have compatible QR code solutions. It still doesn’t justify such an amount of funding imo.

#27

The risk management and the costs to implement a fiat gateway is complicated. Each coin is different, NEM is a unique blockchain and is not a simple fork of Bitcoin. And yes other coins have provided significant support (with the exception of Bitcoin.)

The work our team goes through to foster integration cannot be underestimated. QR codes is only one example. We make sure every merchant staff is familiar with the different types of NEM digital wallets to help consumers problem solve issues. Please remember this is new tech for many people, we are putting NEM out there as a mainstream use case at airports retail and accomodation providers, we don’t want to risk a bad name or experience for our coin. We don’t want to short change support resources on something so important. And don’t forget, these support requirements are on-going and ever increasing as the number of merchants and users grow.

To encourage genuine users form the international community we are providing multiple language websites and customised booking services. Facilitating and negotiating special discounts for the NEM community also requires another layer of NEM specific effort. User learning issues especially from a community starting crypto use adoption will also give rise to numerous support tickets for our online bill payment platform.

I believe our costs are reasonable to the Australian environment. I guess the community needs to weight up the opportunities and the value we bring against what other proposals offer. With the community’s support we will boost XEM transactions significantly. We can put NEM on the retail frontline of international airports and into mainstream media. It’s a solid blockchain and deserves a strong presence so the world can learn about it.

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#28

I really do not think projects focusing on payment have any future as long as government double taxes crypto spendings. Why would people want to use crypto if they will have to keep track of every transactions, get doubled taxed and pay transaction fees. That and what Mexxer said.

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#29

Australia removed Double Taxation into Crypto.

So then Why we need any crypto? Let’s forget it and just trade…If we (NEM) don’t start to create these projects, how can we approach to the non crypto customers? How can we become mainstream?

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#30

Do you have data of how many people are using Living Room of Satoshi in Australia?

Its chief executive, Daniel Alexiuc, said the site was now processing about $1 million a week in small bills for things like rent payments and electricity. “A lot of the media attention has focused on bitcoin’s increasing value because it just had to happen,” he said.

So it basically just comes down to how many people use XEM to travel. Which, I can already tell you, won’t be a lot. Same with the integration with Living Room Of Satoshi

As I said, then why we need NEM or other blockchain solution? if nobody is
going to pay with cryptos, let’s forget and pay with fiat. And in this particular case, where user can pay with other cryptos, (BTC and Ethereum are useless for micropayments, but they are more mainstream that NEM, even when we are much faster). We’ll miss the train to be in a tourist business and prove that our platform is better than others.
Also for the marketing perspective. Of course not so many people are going to pay with NEM or other crypto at the beginning, but if you never open the possibility to do it, Why we are in NEM? What’s the benefit to support a technology if the part of the community is againts to use it in real cases like tourism industry?

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#31

It’s the reason I do not invest in projects trying to act as currency. It’s going against the governments, consequently fought by governments, and at the end, the foundation acts as the central bank of crypto if it succeeds. Don’t get me wrong, I trust crypto foundations over governments anytime but I know governments will fight it with all they got as almost all governments survive on the power to print money, they will not give that up without a fight. I don’t care about currency focus part of Nem. I care about its utility platform.

#32

So you don´t want to use NEM as payments for goods for example NEM Bar where you can pay your drinks with XEM and don´t need to convert it to fiat.

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#33

I do and I will. I am saying a project built on people using it as currency has a lot of challenges ahead. In other words, I do not think it will be mass adopted as currency anytime soon, if ever, unless it’s issued by governments. Government do not have to ban it, they just have to tax it to choke the adoption.

#34

Just throwing in my two cents here, you said you’d use their system for transactions but don’t care about NEM’s currency properites and don’t believe in projects trying to act as a currency. So you’d only use the system once it’s been mass adopted? Everything in the crypto space faces challenges. In my view, it’s about early adoption, gaining visibility and spreading the word, which will lead to greater adoption. I believe NEM has great potential, and the more exposure it gets, the more people will come to appreciate the technology behind it.

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#35

There’s more to crypto than just using it as a currency to buy stuff. You should know that as a NEMber :slight_smile: And quite honestly it’s a rather uninteresting use case for me.
Look, I’m not saying I wouldn’t like to see it, but I’m also realistic enough to admit that the market conditions for paying retail transactions with crypto look bleak. Yes virtually noone uses crypto buy stuff.
That’s why I’m much more bullish on use cases where blockchains powers backends for record keeping, authenticity or token creation. Those projects can also bring way more transactions to the network than people buying stuff with crypto. That’s why I always liked NEM. It was always way more enterprise instead of consumer focused than the others. And that’s the right approach, because in my opinion the main use cases won’t come from people buying stuff with crypto, but from using applications where they don’t even know they are using crypto.

That’s why I’m sceptical about paying so many xem for a project (I believe) won’t be used much anyway.

But I mean… I would be happy to be convinced otherwise.

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#36

mr. robot, I believe in utility platform, not as currency. Nem will have value as it is required for apps built on it, using it for exchange of product will be the by product of utility. I don’t believe governments will allow crypto to act as currency, threatening their power to print money. Most governments in the world will not survive if they can’t print money. Crypto acting as currency threatens their survival, ie. corrupt politicians’ money cow. I’d love to be wrong on this, I hate corrupt governments more than anyone, but when I have to put my money on it, I don’t think people will win. Most people are zombies.

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#37

There’s more to crypto than just using it as a currency to buy stuff. You should know that as a NEMber :slight_smile: And quite honestly it’s a rather uninteresting use case for me.

I know there are different use cases where crypto might have more value than buying goods. ( Voting, Apostille are my favorites) but in this particular case we are talking about using crypto as a currency. Personally I want to pay more with cryptos, I don’t want to use banks or convert the money to fiat. Just use my xem for payments. I heard a guy who is holding a lot of BTC and he said he doesn’t want to transfer to fiat, he is wating until he can use them to pay for goods.
Also this project can help nem with the marketing and user adoption. What is the benefit to have fast transactions and low fees when Bitcoin or Ethereum which are much slower and have higher fees are getting all the attention instead of Nem. I think there are space for different projects based in NEM (enterprise and consumers)

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#38

Some governments are open to have a digital currency attach to the fiat currency. For example Australia. 1$=1token. In comparison to cryptocurrency, the digital Australian dollar might be well managed that the price volatility could be reduced significantly. The government holds the capability of increasing or decreasing the money supply in the system. This power can be used to stabilise the market supply of the new digital currency.


Not only Australia other countries I believe are going to do it sooner or later.

#39

Thanks for the support. Please note we have amended the community travel fund amount down to meet expectations of others in the community who felt we needed to prove value first and put the rest of the subsidy funding to another vote if the initiative is successful. The discounts will be part funded by the fund and part by the merchants. The discounts from most of the merchants will stay. This is particularly the case for accomodation providers who rather see value provided straight to the consumer rather than aggregators like booking.com whom they have to discount for anyway.

#40

Have faith in the crypto movement. The existence of Bitcoin as a decentralised currency cannot be easily stopped by governments and because of that other coins in this space are also allowed to exist. Some of them are better, cheaper and faster ; )

Btw crypto is already used as a currency in Australia. I pay my electricity bill, my childcare fees and my staff in Crypto. You can see what Australians used crypto for here. I would love to use XEM instead of having to pay all these Bitcoin fees which i do now. https://www.livingroomofsatoshi.com/graphs

http://www.getpaidinbitcoin.com.au/

#41

Australia is leading the blockchain adoption. Fintech industry is huge and more and more aussies like to use fintech apps and pay things with cryptos. That’s a reality.
I was talking with the CEO of Fintech Australia and she told me that Living Room of Satoshi users are growing, making much more than $1M every week with bills. Nem can lose a huge opportunity to be listed among other cryptos much slower and with higher fees.
Also NEM is bases in POI so the more transactions the better.

  1. Australia took off double taxation of Cryptos
  2. Friendly regulation (more to come)
  3. High demand for pay with cryptos.
  4. Tourism industry is huge
  5. Australia is in APAC. It’s easy to get attention for other markets. Don’t forget China, Japan, Korea, India and South Asia population is huge. We can be on the radar among these markets.
  6. It’s easy to be in the news in Australia with these projects. The marketing opportunity for NEM it’s a train you don’t want to miss.
  7. I want to use that discount for traveling. It’s an incentive to use my XEM and get benefits (Discount and more POI).
    I can’t wait to travel to the great barrier reef and put pictures in my Instagram swimming or laying in the beach saying how cheap that trip cost to me thanks to NEM and travelbyBit.
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