VastVerse: A peer-to-peer open community Uber-like service to facilitate deliveries

Image by TheAndrasBarta from Pixabay

Concept:

can’t there be an open, community-driven Uber-like service, where anyone can send anything to anywhere on earth, with minimal cost, maximal transparency & accountability?

(“Uber” for everything, by anyone, to anywhere)

Background:

COVID-19 has resulted in limited mobility for many people/goods, which may get better or worse. Restricted mobility has a crippling effect on people’s living quality and access to resources. Ways to distribute with minimal movement will become increasingly important.

Uber has done a superb job in transforming the “taxi industry” and is being used to deliver food as well (UberEat). However, it’s limited to certain usage and is proprietary technology that only Uber can use.

Let’s say that I would like to reduce CO2 and promote vegetarianism, by establishing a food delivery service ONLY for vegetarian restaurants in local areas, and with a minimal fee structure, I can’t do that unless I’m Uber.

What if.. there’s an “open service”, hosted by thousands of volunteer computers worldwide, (much like how Bitcoin mining machines are hosted), and participated by millions of delivery service providers (from companies to individuals), such that:

1. ANYONE can simply request to send ANYTHING, to ANYWHERE, on earth,
2. by specifying the max pay amount, or getting quotation from potential deliverers, and
3. a deal is made on the fly if both parties agree on the time & fee, then
4. a delivery service is carried out by the parties at agreed upon time, with
5. fees being paid directly between e-wallets (crypto wallet for USDT or BTC/ETH), and
6. the machine owners who host this network will get a small service fee.

Then, any person or company will be able to create niche delivery / location-based service (LBS) off this infrastructure, to facilitate the efficient movement of goods and/or people.

To provide transparency and accountability, ALL service providers must be verified with real identities (SMS / email / social network accounts), with open customer rating.

This way, anyone can leverage the “shared economy” service model on an open, transparent infrastructure, while lowering the costs & times for deliveries.

Customers (Target Audience, TA)

• individual or organizational delivery service provider
• individual or companies wishing to send goods/people with minimal cost/time

Results Desired

• send any amount, any type of goods / people from A → B
• Uber-like user experience (UX)
• lower cost than existing alternatives

Features

• request: something/someone be delivered A → B at “sent time”, with “max fee”.
• respond: deliver at “pick-up time”, and finish by “drop-off time”, for “quote fee”
• requester agrees and a contract is formed, ensured by penalty by fee or rating
• once delivery is confirmed, agreed-upon price is sent from requester to provider
• KYC: all participants must pass identity-check to participate
• service machine hosts are compensated by small % fee off successful matches
• service is fully decentralized and “un-owned” by any single entity / organization

Spec

• spatial publish / subscribe (can be based on VAST)
• requester / responder match-making
• best routing calculation algorithm
• suggested fee calculation algorithm
• hosting service compensation model/algorithm
• KYC module
• feedback / reputation module

Business Model

• service machine hoster will receive fees (service volume model)
• customized service may be offered for fees to organization users (custom dev model)
• routing data may be used to “up-sell” other services with user consent (ad model)

Thanks to the MetaPresent team and Mih Media Lab for early feedback and comments on this concept!