ShareRing, a decentralized self-sovereign economy startup will integrate more than 800,000 offerings of the Rakuten Travel Xchange, the largest online travel company in Japan.
ShareRing has recently made international headlines with its anonymous contact-tracing passport. As the global travel industry reopens from COVID19, it will be important to maintain high standards of data security for digital identity. Following the invitation in September to join China’s Blockchain Service Network, ShareRing will now scale into newer horizons by integrating with Rakuten Travel Xchange.
How The Integration Will Work
The ShareRing platform will provide access to Rakuten’s offerings. They will do so via a unique self-sovereign identity platform. It will help to eliminate risks to personal and financial data. Additionally, it will limit theft, fraud, and scams, while eliminating long check-in queues via instant identity verification.
The Rakuten group is already heavily involved in the crypto industry. In 2018, the group acquired the Everybody’s Bitcoin crypto exchange. Besides that, they offer users a chance to exchange loyalty points for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum.
The Significance
Rakuten Travel Xchange is Japan’s largest online travel platform. There are over 600,000 hotels on the platform as well as 200,000 rentals. All of the rentals and hotels will be accessible via the ShareRing decentralized self-sovereign platform. Currently, ShareRing is in use by over 2.6 million experienced providers globally.
The ShareRing platform supports everything needed by travelers including digital passports, travel documents, bank cards, flights, and vehicle information. All the data is stored securely on the blockchain. It is inaccessible to third parties, which limits counterparty risk for the travel industry.
The recent integration is another major achievement for ShareRing, which has a vision of creating a one-stop platform for the travel industry. They aim to create a unique digital identity system that eliminates intermediaries from the process. ShareRing hopes to transform how data is shared and stored using encryption technology.
The unique ID system created by ShareRing is already receiving interest from governments in the ASEAN region. For instance, the system was recently integrated into Thailand’s e-visa-on-arrival system. More government partnerships are expected to be revealed soon.
Why The Integration Matters
The integration into Japan’s largest online travel platform will accelerate the use of the blockchain in the travel sector. It is especially important for a sector that has suffered massive losses during the COVID19 era. It is estimated that the COVID19 pandemic will cause damage equivalent to 1.5% of global GDP.
Leadership Feedback
Commenting on the development, the ShareRing CEO, Tim Bos said:
“We’re excited to be partnering with one of the world’s largest travel providers that reaches more than one billion members around the world, and we are looking forward to offering our users access to the platform with overdue safety and convenience upgrades for the industry.”
Josh Ziegler, the Rakuten Travel Exchange CEO had equally positive sentiments. He said:
“The Rakuten Group takes pride in developing innovative e-commerce and travel solutions in Japan and across the globe. ShareRing’s unique self-sovereign ID model is a major development of the industry, and we look forward to seeing what more they can bring to upgrading technological advancements in the travel space.”
Governments and stakeholders in the travel sector are currently seeking new ways to help them re-open safely. ShareRing is providing a simple integration solution using an API that gives travelers full sovereignty over their data. Most of the existing contact-tracing solutions compromise the privacy of users. The self-sovereign solution created by ShareRing has proven extremely popular across Asia.
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