F E AT U R E A R T I C L E
Blockchain
& Hospitality
a bit like a 2 year old
on a sugar rush
by Fabian Bartnick – Vice President Asia Pacific & International Business, LODGIQ
T
here’s been a lot of buzz about
blockchain in recent years yet
despite the hype, the majority
of people don’t really seem to
understand what blockchain is all
about.
With huge potential and growing
levels of investment, it’s a topic
that demands closer attention.
In the travel sector, blockchain
technology shows a serious amount
of promise, from revolutionizing
loyalty programs and increasing
security, to breaking up the reliance
hotels have on OTAs.
On the other side you have
governments trying to cope with “cryptocurrencies”
and blockchain and the market is deemed emotional
with fluctuations that remind parents of their 2-year-
old on sugar – and the after effect of not giving more
sugar.
All round, the applications are tantalizing yet also
confusing at the same time. The technology is in its
infancy and as a good friend of mine Bjorn Harvold
from TravelKoin.io recently mentioned: “…at times
its like trying to find the pin in a dark room without
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Better Revenue I Better Industry I APAC I www.revenuemanagement.com.au
a flashlight...” when building
Blockchain applications. The
potential is there, the applications
itself need to evolve.
So, to shed some light on the
subject, let’s take a closer look at
what blockchain is and explore
some of its core benefits to the travel
sector.
What is blockchain?
According to the Harvard Business
Review definition, blockchain is “an
open, distributed ledger that can
record transactions between two
parties efficiently and in a verifiable
and permanent way.”
The technology basically offers a tamper-proof way
of recording transactions, agreements and contracts.
So rather than a single organization (such as a bank
or broker) acting as a middleman, every transaction
that takes place is shared and authenticated by
multiple parties across multiple computers.
These transactions grow in a linear fashion
as linked “blocks” (hence blockchain) and each
transaction requires approval by all other users in the