TTC #259 IoT & Blockchain Technology for Renting, Selling, Sharing

Slock.it was the winner of the IoT competition at 4YFN, for 2016. Their system allows anyone to rent, sell or share anything without the use of a middleman. They have set up an ethereum-based locking system -based on blockchain technology- that can be opened with money. Stephan Tual, Founder & COO at Slock.it, gives an example of its use, explaining how someone could rent their house, without having to put it on a platform like AirBnb; which might not be available in every country and in the end takes a commission. What they would be renting out is the actual door of the apartment -an autonomous object connected to the Internet- using a decentralised database of sort, allowing the users both types of access; to rent and use. Everything can be done through a phone and obviously the prospects are enormous and, may we dare say, quite democratic. Took a lot of imagination to realise the potential of considering every object autonomous, thus transferable, but the guys seem to be onto something. A startup worth keeping an eye on. Start by listening to the interview Sakis Triantafyllakis conducted for Tech Talks Central.