Should every industry build its own blockchain ecosystem?

Blockchain holds many promises for the economy of the future. We envision DeFi platforms, DAO-controlled ecosystems, the Web3 metaverse, Play-to-Earn games and NFT-powered marketplaces. All of this is incredibly important, and is getting closer to a mainstream reality every day. However, this looks at blockchain applications in a blockchain economy. A number of platforms have been developed with unique use cases, from real estate NFT ownership, to self-sovereign identity solutions, to a notary-style clerk. But how often have we looked at a layer-1 blockchain that represents an entire industry?

It’s a new concept, but one that should be considered. If an entire industry developed a thriving ecosystem that combined the benefits of competition with the efficiency of smart contracts, representing a full range of industry services in one place – wouldn’t that have enormous value for businesses and customers alike? It would be even more relevant if the industry in question was extremely complex, with various elements strongly dependent on each other. An industry where the customer experience today was very disjointed, opaque and took significant investments in both time and money.

Fortunately, we can examine this exact use case in detail, because it’s about to happen. A large, global travel industry consortium has come together to create a full-spectrum travel blockchain to create efficiencies between services, better organize travel business partnerships and to create a seamless planning and travel experience for customers, wherever they travel in the world.

Let’s take a deep look at the Camino Network, a travel-based blockchain that is very much by the travel industry, for the travel industry. We will look at the history and creation of the chain, what problems it solves for its partners and how it transforms the customer experience. Finally, we will speculate on what other industries would benefit from a similar model.

Camino Network Motivation and origin

If you’ve taken any type of travel in the last 30 years, you know that the travel industry is disjointed, complex, confusing and not at all smooth. Unfortunately, even with great improvements in technology, the task of creating a vacation is time-consuming, stressful, and feels much more expensive than it should be. Travelers can opt for all-inclusive tours, but these too are often overpriced and offer very limited flexibility for those who want to visit specific locations and create their own list of adventures. This is a global industry with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenue, but the technology to make it easier hasn’t improved as much as expected. Yes, there are websites where you can see a collection of flights, hotels and more, but this is a far cry from all the travel, accommodation, experiences and everything in between that goes into planning a trip. The average trip can take over 20 hours to plan, sifting through dozens of websites, and travelers often use 7-8 different apps to plan and experience their trip. From a user perspective, the system has remained broken and backward. Unfortunately, the situation is not much better for companies, which are constantly trying to develop partnerships, consortia and networks so that users can more easily find and order them. But with a global backdrop, finding a common basis for a platform has not been successful.