Hello all!
My name is Kyle, I'm the President of a company called BitLux. We specialize in global
private jet charter and have been in the industry for quite some time (I was raised in it).
I just wanted to introduce myself a bit and say hello!
The BeginningI started my journey into Crypto in 2017 (great year, I know...) but it was an interesting one. I had someone repay me for lunch in Etherium and I just watched the entire thing happen.
At the time, and still today, I have relationships with some very high net-worth individuals in nearly every area of industry around the Globe, so I begun to as questions about crypto, what thoughts were, etc.
The IdeaOne day, at a previous company that I used to run, a client of ours - very large in the cryptosphere - needed a last minute trip that totaled to about $108,000. Since we were not set up to receive anything in crypto, we had to charge the credit card, which had some pretty insane fees attached to it.
Shortly after that, about 20 seconds, it hit me like a ton of bricks - we should be using crypto for things like this. Taking prime advantage of every aspect of crypto. Instant payment (nearly), privacy, guaranteed payment, not having to deal with god awful merchants, you know the drill...
So, I kept asking around and found that surprisingly, many more of the top-tier people I work with on a daily basis hold cryptocurrency. It'd be a great idea to get a brand and infrastructure in place to facilitate the use of crypto-payments and utilization wherever I can.
The StartIn May of 2018, we accepted our first flight paid for in BCH. Everything went well and things slowed down a little on the crypto revenue front. However, this did lead to a great beginning.
Later, in 2018, October, we were asked by a crypto investment firm for other flights - these did go well. Luckily, we started using BitPay to start accepting payments, which prevented us from losing too much - no joke, 2 days after one of our paid invoices, BTC made the drop from $6k to $4k.
SustainabilityOver the course of the next few months, we began to have referrals in the crypto-sphere. In December, we had 5 different deals, all paid for with crypto across different areas in the Globe - Bahamas, the US, and Europe.
For the first time, I really started to grasp how much of a solution we were really providing. Three of the five trips that we had were last minute trips - one musician, one businessman, and one private couple had to be up in the air within hours - crypto was the ONLY way this could have been accomplished.
Current StatusSo far, we've invoiced well over $200,000 in various crypto-currencies - which is fantastic. With a business that runs over $1m a year in revenue, having $200,000 in received crypto payments has been quite the accomplishment. We are slowly working our way into spaces where crypto is actively earned. We've found that while people hold crypto, people don't utilize it. Why?
Well, it seems fairly obvious that the majority of crypto holders and enthusiasts see BTC (mainly) as an investment vehicle. Which brings up a slew of other questions related to adoption and utilization. What will it take to actively earn crypto in place of fiat? How stable does a particular crypto have to be in order for people to feel comfortable using it? What infrastructure needs to be fueled with crypto before it is easily used?
Moving ForwardThe best part is yet to come... Some of our long term goals include a lot more than simply accepting crypto. Believe it or not, Aviation as a whole has very archaic infrastructure and there is a lot of room for error in a lot of places. We have plans on the back burner (warming up) to look at replacing some of these archaic systems and place them on a blockchain. While I cannot delve too far into the exact metrics that we want to have regularly and securely audited, we can safely say we're happily looking forward to the future.
To sum up MY opinion on the future of blockchain tech and crypto utilization in Aviation - I think there are a lot of infrastructure needs that need to be met before the full utilization can take place - services like fueling, ramp handing, crew payments, etc. Once we get the majority of building blocks running on crypto payments and blockchain tech, it'll all come together.
Why am I here?To read and respond! I have used public forums for tons of things in the past and I am surprised that I haven't stumbled across this until now.
I'd really like to hear input from people based on experience in watching markets make a transition to blockchain tech - not NEW industries, but rather how things have been shifting over from existing industries.
Looking forward to some discussion!
-- K
