Keen is an open source project to build an autonomous ride-hailing platform, its unique value proposition is "complete" decentralization, user friendliness and global availability. Keen is the modern solution to the greed and bullying of large ride sharing corporations like Uber, Lyft and Didi Chuxing. It is the next evolution of ride sharing and advances in a true libertarian spirit of decentralized blockchains. Governance is run by its community of riders and drivers with reputation algorithms helping it to exist and adapt autonomously.
Several issues are tackled with this solution which seeks to find its niche among the ever growing demand for urban ride hailing that will become a $230 billion industry by 2030. Given the recent stories in media, there is no doubt that a platform like this is a necessity to bring an end to this dinosaur era of ride sharing and usher in a new era where the power is in the hands of the community.
The Problem
Ride-hailing services that are controlled by corporations require special permits to offer such services to the customers. If the operation is not permitted then these services mobilize public support backed by lobbyist to pressurize the regulators in order to change such regulations. This process is not sustainable and centralized ride-hailing services have greatly failed to expand as a result of their inability to penetrate into countries and cities that would otherwise have a great demand for the services. For locations where this has been achieved, often it includes reaching compromises with local municipalities on new regulations and company policies.
There have been known cases where concerns regarding safety standards of centralized ride-hailing services have been raised as despite of receiving multiple complaints related to their drivers, these services choose to keep the drivers without any restrictions or penalties to maintain their competitiveness against other ride-hailing services. There have been cases where these services have admitted their employees accessing private data of its users for questionable purposes.
Ride hailing corporations want to keep a significant commission from the trip fare for themselves. This commission is taken from the normal fares and in case of surge fares the commission recovered is even higher. Ideally, surge fares should be applied in case of a higher demand for rides, but off-course the corporations do not provide any means to determine the authenticity of such surcharges.
The Solution
A purely decentralized ride-hailing service that nobody controls can penetrate into markets that ride-hailing platforms under ownership of corporations cannot. Drivers and riders can interact directly through a purely peer-to-peer mechanism that has no centralized parties involved.
A service that can be self-governed through the community of riders and drivers where everyone that is part of community inherently runs the operations of the platform, Keen uses a decentralized governance mechanism based on Proof-of-Loyalty (PoL) algorithm. The authenticity of the drivers, riders and their rides taken will be determined by the system based on behavioral aspects to detect any attempts to defraud the system.
No one will be taking any cut from the ride fare and the entire fare paid by the rider goes to the driver. Drivers will get to set their own rates and this will create a competitive landscape for everyone as drivers with the lowest rates and highest ratings will be given priority in getting rides. Drivers will be able to see rates being offered by other drivers in their geographical region so they can adjust their own rates. Also, riders will have the option to set their preferred rates for a ride for drivers within the vicinity to accept.
Keen Tokens
Keen Tokens (KNT) will be used for payments and tipping to drivers through the Keen platform. Also, the tokens will be transferable between users within the Keen platform through the built-in app wallet. Transfer fees will only be charged in case Keen Tokens are transferred through the app wallet or using any other third-party wallet to transfer the tokens i.e. no fees will be charged if the tokens are being transferred as ride fare.
As the number of riders and drivers increases so will the transactions volume and this will increase number of tokens that are staked in the platform. Accordingly, circulating supply of Keen tokens that are not staked in the platform goes down with user adoption as users will keep tokens in platform to pay for the rides, get rides faster / cheaper, get more weightage in terms of ratings and to get free on-boarding rides . Also, validators will be required to stake their tokens in the platform as part of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus system.
Hence, price of each token will rise in value as number of users and validators on the platform keeps on increasing.
K(token) ∝ ( ∑ N(users+validators) )²
Timelines
Q1-Q2 2018 Market analysis and R&D for software architecture Whitepaper release UI / UX design and front-end tests Keen Tokens pre-sale Distribution of Keen Future Tokens to pre-sale contributors Community building campaigns
Q3 2018 Launch of Android and iOS apps (alpha) with basic ride-hailing functionality over Ethereums testnet Launch of KeenNet (alpha) Independent third-party security audits Token swap of Keen Future Tokens with Keen Tokens Keen Tokens Crowdsale
Q4 2018 Keen Tokens availability on exchanges Keen apps integration with KeenNet Beta launch of Keen Platform Extensive rides testing and bug bounty campaigns
2019+ Rollout of a stable release Continuation of community building campaigns Ongoing support and maintenance of the platform
Keen Pre-sale starts on March 31, 2018 at 6 PM (UST)
