If the hype is to be believed, blockchain will revolutionize
the travel industry by replacing existing distribution and payment methods,
making processes cheaper by cutting out middlemen like the inveterate global distribution
systems and banks. By design, blockchain has the power to decrease fraud, speed
the transmission of data and payments and improve traveler tracking.
In 2016, T&E management provider KDS was one of the
first companies in the business travel industry to accept bitcoin, which is the
first major use of blockchain technology. Travel management company Gant
followed KDS in September of this year. Both wanted to be ready when demand
from clients emerged. Blockchain startup Winding Tree partnered with Lufthansa
in October and plans to launch a blockchain-based hotel and airline
distribution products.
In July, Innfinity Software Systems said it would redevelop
the back end of its online booking tool using blockchain. Senior developer
Jonathan Carmody said blockchain would enable clients to link content and
offerings in new ways that aren't currently possible. ShoCard is developing a
traveler identification method to connect other identification data like
passport and I.D. information and improve airport security and traveler
tracking. AirPlus CEO Patrick Diemer said the payments company had been
examining the technology, American Express and Visa each plan to implement
blockchain for crossborder B2B payments and Mastercard has filed a patent
application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its own blockchain
solution.
There's a sense that the travel industry and indeed the
larger economy are on the brink of something. We just don't know quite what
yet. Nor do we know who started it all. The identity of the technology's
creator, is unknown. The first papers describing bitcoin were published on a
cryptography mailing list in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. However, no one has
confirmed the person's true identity and some even consider the name to apply
to a group of people even though Nakamoto has self-identified as a Japanese man
born in 1975.