One of the great things about AirBnB is how it functions as an escrow service which is the key for confidence between hosts and guests. You expect the space will be there for you when you get there otherwise the host doesn't get paid while the host is sure to get paid because the funds are already in escrow.
This is also the biggest problem with AirBnB: handling your personal and financial information. This information must be made available to authorities on request who can then try to collect hotel taxes, require a business license, or otherwise penalize hosts.
We think that the way around this is to decouple the listings and bookings from the financials, using this site to link hosts and guests anonymously:
http://theshare.zone and some Bitcoin escrow service to handle payments.
We're looking for a trustworthy escrow service with an api that can integrate with our booking system to make this happen. Ideally only open escrow transactions would have any reference to pending bookings so there would be no history of paid booking. On our end the listings and bookings data is anonymized, stored off-shore, and destroyed upon expiration or host request. We're not into keeping information for any longer than absolutely necessary
That plus creative use of social media and possible transaction linked verified reviews could be used to enable a more anonymous, Bitcoin based 'flavor' within the online sharing economy. It won't keep Big Brother from knowing what you're doing if they want to scrutinize you individually but it should prevent the wholesale collection of detailed data on the activities of the majority of hosts and guests using the system.
