A future version of AirBNB
The power of integration is further strengthened by the use of the Internet of Things. Let's imagine a future version of AirBNB, where the bookings are tokenised. When a traveller rents an AirBNB house, he receives a token which gives access to the house for a specific time window. If the time-window is closed, the token becomes essentially worthless.
The house is secured by a smart-lock, which the traveller can unlock with his or her token, and the smart-lock would recognise who the current owner of the booking token is. If the house owner feels more comfortable, he can also demand the traveller to provide an identity token, which substitutes the account on platforms like AirBNB.
If Alice owns a token that represents the right to use a room during a specific time window, or "a booking" in user's terms, then she can check-in by two possible actions: produce a QR code to verify the booking to the landlord - or use an NFC-enabled phone to open a smart-lock.
This process doesn't enable something fundamentally new, but it makes an existing process much easier. Currently, booking a house with AirBNB or other platforms requires the traveller to have an account on the platform, to deposit his credit card (or some other proof of identity respectively deposit), to receive an order confirmation and an unlock key via email and more. All these steps can be integrated by a single token.
Requirements
Observing the desirable integration, we can see TokenScript has to satisfy the following needs:
- Allow token actions to be defined. In the case of a shipping token, there would be a "redeem" action (via a QR code or NFC) and an "authorise" action which would allow someone else to pick up a delivery. In the case of AirBNB there would be an unlock or a verify action.
- Allow blockchain functions to be accessed in an action.
- Allow web functions to be accessed in an action. Essentially this means that both blockchain and web functions must join in TokenScript, which enables it to integrate it. TokenScript must not only define how a token behaves - but also how other environments react on a token action.
- Allow the token status to be updated, via a web API or signed message. The token status could be the validity during a specific time-frame, the extension of this time-frame and much more (more on that later).