An age-old problem for taxi drivers is that they don’t know if the passenger will be able to pay. Restaurants, hairdressers, etc. face a similar problem.
What if, in order to take a taxi, perhaps on uber.com, or in order to place an order at a restaurant, you had to put the funds in escrow? For taxis, the oracle could be some kind of GPS, or maybe two GPSs, one controlled by the taxi driver and one being the user’s phone. For restaurants, local law enforcement - for a more anarchic approach a standards/arbitration agency - could hold the third of a 2-of-3 transaction key, meaning that the money would be in limbo in the event that the diner and restaurant could not agree, until the police or the agency made a decision.
This should all happen completely automatically without the user really noticing. Is this possible with Counterparty?
[quote author=Zangelbert Bingledack link=topic=131.msg827#msg827 date=1393239767]
An age-old problem for taxi drivers is that they don’t know if the passenger will be able to pay. Restaurants, hairdressers, etc. face a similar problem.
What if, in order to take a taxi, perhaps on uber.com, or in order to place an order at a restaurant, you had to put the funds in escrow? For taxis, the oracle could be some kind of GPS, or maybe two GPSs, one controlled by the taxi driver and one being the user’s phone. For restaurants, local law enforcement - for a more anarchic approach a standards/arbitration agency - could hold the third of a 2-of-3 transaction key, meaning that the money would be in limbo in the event that the diner and restaurant could not agree, until the police or the agency made a decision.
This should all happen completely automatically without the user really noticing. Is this possible with Counterparty?
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I’m not sure if this is country-specific thing but usually there is two type of taxi that I know of
1) on a meter, you know exactly how much the cost is, if cost is too much you tell taxi to stop
2) call up, book online or via app. you ask driver how much and he tell you.
in both cases you ensure you have the cash in pocket, door is simply locked and you must pay. if you haven’t got money you will leave a phone or something with driver whilst you collect from your home otherwise he will just finally let you go or maybe drop to police station
and for restaurant you ask the price or see the price on a menu. you book and you pay the amount then you can eat the food, if you don’t pay no food for you so you have wasted your own time. plus your date is laughing at you an embarrassed they will ask why did you take me to the restaurant if you cannot pay
with hairdresser you book the appointment and pay in advance, online or at the desk or whatever. and you pay the money, if you want something different or extra you pay the extra balance.
so where is the need for escrow, seems to be complicating things?
Good idea. However, implementing this requires a trusted feed infrastructure to be built on top of counterparty. So, I would say this is a year or two away.