The first update of 2020 kicks off with the release of Tratok’s travel applications for IOS and Android. In conjunction with the release of last month’s third-generation ecosystem, this is aimed at making Tratok easier to use, multi-platform and accessible to those with no knowledge of blockchain technologies. Please keep an eye out for these in on Google Play and Apple’s App Store in the next 24-48 hours. While it is the weekend, after working through the holiday season to ensure delivery and functionality of the apps on time, the team is determined to let nothing stop us.
With this milestone reached, efforts in the next quarter will be focused on expansion and marketing while the ecosystem continues to be enhanced with additional features added. As it currently stands, we are on target for Tratok to be conveniently used for virtually all your travel needs before the end of the Q1 2020.
The current status of the modules are as follows:
Accommodation Ecosystem:
Despite it being only 10 days into the year, we are already 21.82% of the way to our target of 50,000 hotel rooms in the UAE over the next 18 months. With the MOU’s in place, we are currently expanding our team to complete the onboarding process. In addition, we have listened to the community and your concerns that many of these properties are 5-star hotels and represent a budget issue for many of our younger travellers. As a result, extensive efforts will commence to onboard more 3 and 4-star budget properties as aim to keep to our vision of being “The World’s Travel Token”.
In addition to this, the launch of the Apps allows individuals (subject to the law in the relevant domicile) to offer their own accommodation for rent on the platform with virtually zero barriers and nothing more than their mobile. We expect strong growth in this domain and believe it is an essential step in increasing accessibility to travel. We know the blockchain enthusiast community will really appreciate this feature which not only empowers small landlords but also helps bring the world closer together.
Activities Ecosystem:
This ecosystem module was deployed in November 2019. To repeat what was mentioned then:
“Tratok is about opening the world to the next generation of smart travellers. By nature, this generation is curious to know more, to go off the beaten path and adventure into the culture and the destination more than previous generations ever have. Never before has there been a greater desire to understand and reach out to different people and understand their way of life, their customs and their rituals.
Times change, generations evolve and so must the world. Tratok is in constant evolution. It is precisely because your trip should not be limited to merely travel and lodging that Tratok has launched the Activities Ecosystem – a world of activities in each destination which can easily be facilitated through the Tratok booking platform and paid for in Tratok.
More than a mere grouping of random local businesses, each destination’s unique Activities Ecosystem has been carefully curated by the Tratok Team to ensure that each traveller manages to experience each destination to the maximum, whether their interests are to discover the cultural, gastronomical, sportive, natural or religious aspect of where they have travelled to. In order to ensure the authenticity of each experience offered, every review is verified for genuineness via the blockchain after bookings by Tratok’s community. This will ensure a lot of fun and excellent meals (for the most part – you can compare experiences with each other when you meet on the ground!).
At Tratok, we believe that everyone has something to offer the world and therefore every member of the public is encouraged to list their services on the platform. Be it a safari, a spa experience, a museum guide or even birdwatching, our all-encompassing Activity Ecosystem will ensure that wherever you are, you will never be idle. The best way to discover a destination is to do so with a local, or with someone who has lived there for a long time. That is how one knows where to eat and how to uncover the truly unique experiences that the place has to offer. We do not all have a friend or a local we can meet when we travel – but we do all have access to Tratok, whose experts on the ground act as your local friend and expose the secrets of the destination to you. Tratok’s community is a global family and we want to continue to bring the world closer together.
The Activities Ecosystem is beautifully aligned with Tratok’s vision to offer a complete solution to modern-day travel in all its forms and to offer the traveller an experience above and beyond what they would have otherwise experienced.”
Cruises Ecosystem:
While the plugin has been developed for the ecosystem and the technology exists, we will dedicate more resources to this in the second half of the year, the highest probability being that agreements will exist in the fourth quarter.
Flight Ecosystem:
While this has been developed into a usable product, more so than our other modules due to the helpfulness of API’s directly provided by the airlines, the product has been in Sandbox testing since the start of Q4 2019. From our side, development is done. We await a sign off from our partner’s IT, Finance and Compliance teams as well as a finalized agreement. We will be requesting volunteers among you for a test run sooner than you think.
Social Ecosystem:
With the ability to determine genuine reviews from false ones, interact with service providers and friends on the platform, Tratok makes travel more sociable. These existing features combine with the self-improving machine learning algorithm to give users the best experience matched to them, with suggestions not based on paid placements but rather what the user would enjoy the most. This plugin adds to the value differential proposal of Tratok where we seek to provide better memories that last a lifetime.
Token Economy Ecosystem:
The ecosystems economy was enhanced in December 2019 with many benefits. It results in instant transactions in the ecosystem with no transaction fees. In addition, it allows those with no knowledge on how to create wallets to sign up without worrying about the technical details. In summary, the following benefits are offered:
Instant transactions, not 23 seconds like before.
New users do not need to create a new wallet. One is instantly made for them! This is more convenient for new users.
Full safety of the tokens is guaranteed by Tratok Ltd.
A booking becomes even easier with true one-click processing.
Avoid paying ETH gas costs for multiple transactions. Only pay a transaction fee when you reload your account. Based on projections of 400,000 bookings per day after Phase 2 of growth, this alone will result in savings of over USD 4.3 million per year for Tratok’s users. In addition, it also prevents cluttering the blockchain network needlessly.
Compatibility with Tratok’s contactless payment card, expected for release at the end of 2020.
The new and more efficient method further reduces costs, makes processes faster and ensures the security of tokens
Full freedom and the ability to top up or withdraw tokens as desired.
With this aspect deployed, we can return to focus on the liquidity of the token which has to be enhanced by adding additional exchanges with superior and unadulterated volume. We had expected to be on two of the world’s leading exchanges by September 2019, however, changes in regulation meant we had to hold back on this. As a legally incorporated entity in multiple regions, Tratok has a responsibility to comply with the laws. This is not just because it is our duty as good corporate citizens, but also because it is our duty to protect our founders, executives, partners and all other stakeholders. The consequences of violating such laws, even if non-menacingly are severe, as all of you will be aware of from the headlines of the fates of enterprises and ventures that were less responsible than Tratok. Having had our GC sign off on our structure at the end of last year, we are now in a position to resume where we left off. This is a huge priority for us, as the liquidity in the ecosystem is of huge importance and we will deliver ASAP on this priority, certainly no later than the end of Q1 2020.
Strengths going into 2020:
Stronger Financial Muscles: Tratok has an operating budget for the next 18 months that is a minimum of 2809.10% higher than the previous 18 month period. This number may grow by further depending on the level of support and grants that we get under the UAE’s incentive programs for non-hydrocarbon enterprises to help diversify the economy. For details on how these funds will be allocated, please refer to our last updates, we have been very transparent.
A supporting local ecosystem. With the arrival of Kraken in the UAE, the launch of Midchains, Rain and many other significant players over the last six months, traditional barriers to entry for new adopters of blockchain assets will be greatly reduced for the GCC population.
Regulation. As of October 2019, there has been further clarity on regulation, making business processes clearer and friendlier and making traditional business more open to blockchain technology.
EXPO2020.
2020 has the promise of being Tratok’s strongest year yet but the team cannot take all of the credit. We would like to take this time to thank the following people:
Our partners who helped us get this far.
The leadership of the UAE for their openness to embracing the future and providing an environment in which disruptive technology can flourish.
Our community of genuine supporters, in particular, our volunteer moderators and our pilot guests.
Special thanks to the guys who sat at the desks in Chancery Lane working through the holiday season.
Special thanks to the KYC team and IPQualityScore for helping identify those who tried to exploit our generosity.
Special thanks to Liverpool FC for performing and keeping a certain executive in a good mood.
With your help, we will change the world for the better and ensure that everyone’s dream is only a Tratok away. We wish 2020 brings each and every one of you happiness and the dreams you wish to realize,
Warmest Regards,
All of us at Tratok Ltd and Tratok Portal LLC
P.S. While always transparent, we do like to keep some degree of suspense so we are leaving you with a countdown to our next significant milestone.
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