Origin is an open-source platform that enables the creation of decentralized, peer-to-peer market-places. The Origin Platform initially targets the global sharing economy, allowing buyers and sellers of fractional use goods and services (car-sharing, service-based tasks, home-sharing, etc.) to transact on the distributed, open web. Using the Ethereum blockchain and Interplanetary File System (IPFS), the platform and its community participants are decentralized, allowing for the creation and booking of services and goods without traditional intermediaries.
The sharing economy is large and growing, but only a few, large centralized intermediaries dominate this market. Airbnb generated more than $2.6B in fees in 2017, Lyft made more than $2.5B in 2019, and Uber took home a monumental $14.9B in revenue in 2019. The total sharing economy fees are expected to cross $40B by 2020.[1] However, these centralized internet companies do not truly share the economic benefit with those that deliver the value. Centralized intermediaries often charge 20-30% in transaction fees to both the user and the provider of the service. None of the early participants on these platforms benefited despite being critical to their success.
With the advent of cryptocurrencies and the proliferation of inexpensive smartphones, now is the time to bring the sharing economy to everyone - and to allow them to truly share in the value they create. Origin enables everyone to own a piece of the network.
Origin intends to enable a large-scale commerce network that:
To accomplish these ambitious goals, Origin launched the Origin Platform with incentives that encourage other technologists, businesses, and consumers to build, contribute, and extend the ecosystem with us. Origin imagines a broad collection of vertical use cases (e.g short-term vacation rentals, freelance software engineering, tutoring for hire) that are built on top of Origin standards and shared data.
