[ANN] Origin Protocol: The Sharing Economy Without Intermediaries

[andrewhyde]

Hello from Origin Protocol! Our entire team is gathered in our office in San Francisco and we thought it would be a good time to introduce ourselves to the Bitcointalk community.

We are building a sharing economy without intermediaries. A 0% commission booking engine that enables you to power your business or build a marketplace of your own.

From our website:

“Origin is a protocol for creating sharing economy marketplaces using the Ethereum blockchain and IPFS. We empower developers and businesses to easily build decentralized marketplaces on the blockchain. The Origin Protocol makes it easy to create and manage listings for the fractional usage of assets and services. Buyers and sellers can discover each other, browse listings, make bookings, leave ratings and reviews, and much more.”

Our goal is to disrupt the billion dollar sharing economy, where the likes of AirBnb, Uber and GetAround are the 800 lb. gorillas. We want to reduce transaction fees (usually 20-30%), reduce censorship and regulation, and reward early platform users. Our platform is built on top of Ethereum and IPFS.

We are super excited about what we are doing and we hope you are too. The founders and first employees are serial entrepreneurs that have built and sold successful companies. Matt was very early at YouTube and has been part of three startup acquisitions. Josh built 3 venture-backed startups and sold Torbit to Walmart Labs. On the funding front we are backed by Pantera Capital. You can read some early press about us on Coindesk.


Take a look at our website and make sure to stay up to date by joining our Telegram.

Website: https://www.originprotocol.com/
Read the Product Brief (.pdf): http://www.originprotocol.com/product-brief
Read the Whitepaper (.pdf): http://www.originprotocol.com/whitepaper
Join the Telegram: https://t.me/originprotocol
Join the Slack: http://slack.originprotocol.com/
See our Team: https://www.originprotocol.com/team

[republicrypto]

nice idea and great team inside
but, where can i read the whitepaper from this project ?
regards

[andrewhyde]

Whitepaper can be found here: http://www.originprotocol.com/whitepaper

Let us know your thoughts!

[andrewhyde]

Outside of fractional marketplaces, what about more traditional marketplaces like eBay, Craigslist, Yelp where it is a single transaction? Can Origin help with that?

We are building a protocol and time will tell what that is used for. I think it is best for sharing economy type marketplaces. We are taking a 0% commission fee so we see a ton of potential for any industry where you see a high commission (we are seeing 12-40% as commonplace). We hope a lot of different communities build their own marketplaces on Origin Protocol.

[joshfraser]

Hey guy, I'm one of the founders. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

Yes, we support those types of marketplaces as well!

Outside of fractional marketplaces, what about more traditional marketplaces like eBay, Craigslist, Yelp where it is a single transaction? Can Origin help with that?

[democity]

I see your team has a lot of entrepreneurial experience, and it's important to the project.

[joshfraser]

In fact, all 5 full-time employees on the team have built companies before & have been a part of 6 acquisitions to companies like Google and Walmart.

I see your team has a lot of entrepreneurial experience, and it's important to the project.

[cryptocoleman]

I see your team has a lot of entrepreneurial experience, and it's important to the project.

Matt and Josh (the two founders) are super talented guys and entrepreneurs. They've been founders or key employees at companies that have been acquired by giants like Google and Walmart Labs. Origin definitely has the pedigree/team box checked.

I also know that this is kind of a passion project for them. Matt built a real time analytics tool for comparing ride sharing prices. With his app you could see if Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, or a Taxi was cheaper in real time from A to B. Uber shut him down with a cease and desist. Josh was a big Airbnb host as well and experienced tons of issues with over-regulation, large fees, and a centralized body making arbitrary rules.

I know Josh has told me the story about getting in an Uber with the 30th Uber driver ever. It's unfair that that driver was integral to building the Uber network and contributing to its massive financial success but was not rewarded for doing so and is making less money than when he started.

It'd be really fitting for them to bring sharing economy and p2p marketplaces back to the people. These guys are really in it for the long term.

As an Airbnb host myself and someone who is a heavy participant in the sharing economy, I am really excited about what Origin is developing!

[mliu]

This is Matt, other cofounder on the project. Happy to answer any questions folks have.

[andrewhyde]

Let us know if you have any questions or comments on our whitepaper: https://www.originprotocol.com/whitepaper

We have a public demo that we will post about tomorrow.

[xibeijan]

This is Matt, other cofounder on the project. Happy to answer any questions folks have.

Hi is there an airdrop?

[angilly]

Hi all,

Long time lurker here. Been following BTC since ~2012. I'm helping Origin w/ some engineering & devops, so I figured it was time to make an account. Happy to answer any questions, but I also wanted to contribute by sharing a little anecdote about my personal mental journey with Origin.

When Origin was first described to me several months ago, I thought to myself "why do I need a blockchain to buy a bike off Craigslist or rent out my apartment on VRBO?" What made it click it for me was when I finally realized what happens when Origin becomes the underlying database for sharing applications. They are taking what has become the moat of most semi-monopolies (their data) and turning that on it's head. Imagine how much more innovative & competitive AirBnB or MLS or Craigslist would need to be if anyone could come along and build better applications on top of "their" dataset. That's what Origin is doing. It can seem a little pie-in-the-sky right now, and there's a long way to go, but hey iPhones barely existed 10 years ago, right? :-) I really love the vision behind this idea. Since finally wrapping my brain around Ethereum ~1 year ago, this is one of first applications I've come across that is not only well-suited for a blockchain, but wouldn't be able to exist without it.

Anyway, that's my spiel. Thanks for reading!

[andrewhyde]

What made it click it for me was when I finally realized what happens when Origin becomes the underlying database for sharing applications.

I'm really excited to see the marketplaces develop on-top of the protocol.

[Sam123]

Good project. Are you considering an ICO?

[RobertSnow]

I would also like to know about the ICO

[andrewhyde]

Good project. Are you considering an ICO?

We do have an upcoming presale. Info in our telegram channel: https://t.me/originprotocol

[andrewhyde]

I would also like to know about the ICO

Hey Robert. We would love to have you involved. Check out the telegram for presale info: https://t.me/originprotocol

[andrewhyde]

We just published a Demo DApp of the product if you want to check out our code / product / Ethereum Rinkeby test network.

https://medium.com/originprotocol/origin-demo-dapp-is-now-live-on-testnet-835ae201c58

[dishku]

What is exact time line for launch of ICO it seems it could take long time or I'm missing something about this project. Nothing into the OP please provide full details about the distribution system of this token.

[DOUBLEKAY11]

A good project on the face of it if it can follow the white paper combine with the road map.