Airbnb shows its growing interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies once more. At the request of its community, the platform for renting out personal space assures that it is investigating the integration of payments in digital currencies. Nonetheless, Airbnb intends to proceed with caution when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption.
Airbnb investigates the topic of cryptocurrency.
Airbnb, a service that allows people to rent out their homes, is progressively shifting its focus to Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies. Brian Chesky, CEO and co-founder of Airbnb, highlighted the company’s growing interest in the digital currency sector in an interview with The Verge.
“We are closely studying the subject of cryptocurrencies […]. As there is the travel revolution, there is clearly a revolution happening in cryptocurrency,” says Brian Chesky.
The CEO then compared Airbnb’s functionality to that of the Bitcoin system. Both solutions, he claims, eliminate the need for a trusted third party by relying on a public record.
This is the blockchain in the case of Bitcoin. Airbnb, for its part, makes all traveler evaluations available to the public on its website. As a result, a dependable third party is still required. It all comes down to the platform and its leaders.
“According to the Bitcoin white paper, Bitcoin does not require trust because there is a big public ledger. Airbnb handled the issue of trust in a similar manner: “We presented a trust system in which all of the reviews are the equivalent of this big public registry,” reckons Airbnb’s CEO.
In the direction of bitcoin payments on Airbnb?
Brian Chesky urged his Twitter followers to vote on the platform’s next innovations at the start of the year. Cryptocurrency payments have been unanimously selected as the service’s next most anticipated feature by Internet users.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Airbnb’s co-founder claims to have considered the opinions of his followers. Chesky says that a “team is presently working into this” in response to the poll findings.
“We have nothing to announce, but we are absolutely looking into it,” adds the American entrepreneur, stressing that “nothing can be implemented quickly.”
Brian Chesky informs The Verge that “everyone who handles a lot of money” should be interested in Bitcoin payments. He also implies that Airbnb intends to proceed with caution when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption. As a result, the corporation has “no short-term plan” on this issue.
“You have a lot of volatility. One of the accounting challenges is that if you have gains, you can’t really rely on those gains, but if you have losses, you have to rely on those losses. There are a lot of things you need to think about, ” tempers the CEO.
As a reminder, at its IPO in 2020, Airbnb discussed cryptocurrency for the first time. The platform then considered that adapting to future technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, was critical. Despite this ongoing interest, Airbnb has not taken any significant steps in this direction.
