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How this decentralized home sharing startup plans to disrupt the travel industry How this decentralized home sharing startup plans to disrupt the travel industry
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How this decentralized home sharing startup plans to disrupt the travel industry

Dtravel Growth Lead Cynthia Huang tells us why hosts and guests will benefit from decentralized home sharing.

How this decentralized home sharing startup plans to disrupt the travel industry

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.

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CryptoSlate recently had the opportunity to chat with Cynthia Huang, the Growth Lead for Dtravel, a decentralized marketplace for home rentals.

Cynthia Huang is the Growth Lead for Dtravel. She’s also the co-founder of Altcoin Fantasy, a crypto trading simulation game with 300K+ users worldwide and Airhosts Forum, the #1 Airbnb host community globally. Cynthia has won numerous awards for her projects, totaling over $100K USD in prizes and grants. She’s experienced in growth, product, and marketing. Her published works appear on sites like Hacker Noon, The Startup and CoinMarketCap and she’s been featured in interviews for publications such as Thrive Global and Authority Mag.

Interview with Cynthia Huang, Dtravel Growth Lead

What is the professional background of the Dtravel founders and what is their previous experience in crypto?

The team behind Dtravel is Genesys Partners, which includes over 40 contributors from all over the world with a wide range of backgrounds in crypto/blockchain, travel, security, business development, software development, operations, design, compliance, social media and marketing. The team includes contributors with deep expertise in blockchain, DeFi and token economics, as well as those with roots in travel and the rentals markets through experience at Airbnb, Expedia and rental host communities.

Some of our key contributors include:

Drew Currah – Finance Lead – With over 10 years experience developing and improving online businesses, Drew’s strengths lie in business strategy, financial analysis, and taking new ventures from ideation to commercialization. In the corporate world, as a financial strategist at De Beers Group, Drew’s creation, planning and implementation of transformative business strategies helped shape the future direction of the company.

As an entrepreneur, Drew’s peer-to-peer services start-up amassed thousands of users across Canada before being acquired. Previously he spent nearly 3 years as the CFO of the world’s leading blockchain-based travel agency Travala.com.

Cynthia Huang – Growth Lead – Cynthia Huang is the Growth Lead for Dtravel. She’s also the co-founder of Altcoin Fantasy, a crypto trading simulation game with 300K+ users worldwide and Airhosts Forum, the #1 Airbnb host community globally. Cynthia has won numerous awards for her projects, totaling over $100K USD in prizes and grants. She’s experienced in growth, product, and marketing. Her published works appear on sites like Hacker Noon, The Startup and CoinMarketCap and she’s been featured in interviews for publications such as Thrive Global and Authority Mag.

Nigel Da Costa – Business Development Lead – Based in Toronto, Canada, Nigel spent most of his early career working for digital advertising agencies before jumping into a number of his own entrepreneurial ventures. In 2010, he co-founded a digital healthcare marketplace and built it into one of the most traffic-healthy websites in Canada, sold the company in 2014, and shortly afterward joined Airbnb as the second Canadian employee.

During his seven-year tenure at Airbnb, he helped build the Canadian market and led global teams to build out Airbnb for Work, Airbnb’s business travel offering and, most recently, Airbnb’s 9-year partnership with the Olympics. Nigel also enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids.

Ben Wilkins – Design Lead  – Ben is a multidisciplinary designer and technologist interested in the intersection of offline experiences and technology. He’s led design teams at two startups—Handshake and Jumpstart—and was an early member of Airbnb’s design team, where he worked for over 4 years on Luxury Travel, Design Systems, and a few experiments which leveraged AI to improve the design process.

What problem is Dtravel solving and why is community-owned home-sharing important?

With current centralized platforms built on web2 technologies, platform users (e.g. hosts, guests, drivers, riders, content creators, content supporters) contribute to the growth of the platform but they don’t get any benefit from it or a say in how the platform is run. Ancillary service providers — such as cleaning companies, ride-sharing tablet advertisers —  and community builders — local host groups, ride-sharing blogs —  aren’t rewarded or encouraged for their efforts in supporting the platform, its users or the ecosystem.

This is partly because of the limitations with web2, where there are no mechanisms by which these platforms are able to reward users and others in the ecosystem who do contribute value. This is what we aim to solve with the TRVL token and the Dtravel DAO being focal points of the booking platform.

Dtravel screenshot
The Dtravel website experience

By building in reward mechanisms and giving hosts and guests within the Dtravel ecosystem a stake in the network through TRVL, community members and ancillary service providers are encouraged, supported and rewarded for contributing to the growth of Dtravel. This creates a virtuous cycle and flywheel effect where growth powers more growth, bringing in more users, more services and creating an even broader ecosystem of participants that will exceed what we can imagine a platform can be today. 

Through the Grants DAO, we envision that a whole host of services will be created that support Dtravel and that will also use the TRVL token as a form of exchange and utility, creating endless uses relating to travel, home sharing and self-selected work.

What is the benefit for the hosts and guests to use Dtravel?

Hosts get 0% fees while guests save substantially over other home-sharing platforms (up to 50%) and get 1% back in TRVL rewards for each booking (VIP members get 3%).

All community members who hold TRVL get a voice and vote in the governance of the network through the Dtravel DAO and have a stake in the network.

All community members have additional ways to earn rewards through contributing their time and expertise to helping and growing the community through the Support-to-Earn program.

How many people are working on Dtravel and where is the team located?

We have over 40 contributors to Dtravel worldwide in the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia.

What technologies were used to build the Dtravel platform?

We use cryptocurrency payments infrastructure to eliminate currency volatility risk when booking travel and digital wallets to allow members to hold various cryptocurrencies in-platform.

Development of the TRVL token — which serves core purposes within the Dtravel network —  is on the Ethereum network and DeFi will be used to grow the Protection pool 

VIP memberships are represented by NFTs for those individuals who appreciate enhanced rewards for frequent travel and we’re conducting R&D on future roadmap items such as layer 2 solutions and on-chain interactions throughout the booking process.

We will also have solutions for members of the Dtravel community to have a voice and a vote in the governance of the platform. 

Where do you see the Dtravel ecosystem over the next few years? What will be the major milestones?

Our goal is to become the largest DAO in the world, encompassing both crypto natives and non-crypto native community members. Our focus over the next few years is on developing a hosting and travel experience built on what members actually want and need through community proposals and voting on features. The launch of our Support-to-Earn program will set new standards for how DAOs and platforms can leverage their community members to help support and grow the ecosystem through their involvement and time.

Additionally, DAO grants and Host DAO will allow members to put forward proposals and receive grants that will grow the Dtravel ecosystem.

What is the utility of the TRVL token?

There are 4 main ways to use TRVL, with more utility that will be added over time:

1) Payments:

  • Guests can book travel with TRVL
  • Hosts can receive payments in TRVL
  • Hosts can pay for value-added services with TRVL
  • TRVL can be used to purchase Dtravel’s VIP NFT Memberships

2) Staking:

  • Community members must stake TRVL in order to participate on the platform and in governance
  • Hosts and guests who stake can get discounts or other rewards

3) Governance:

  • TRVL holders can participate in the governance of the network including voting and submitting proposals

4) Other:

  • Community members who participate in network operations will receive TRVL rewards through the Support-to-Earn program

What is the best way for those interested to learn more about Dtravel?

Join our community below:

Connect with Cynthia Huang

Cynthia Huang is the Growth Lead for Dtravel.

Disclaimer: CryptoSlate holds a financial position in Dtravel and was given the opportunity to participate in the presale of this project in exchange for news, analysis, and other types of coverage. CryptoSlate was NOT paid to publish this article.

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Posted In: Interview, People