After a difficult year, Airbnb has filed an IPO prospectus with plans to go public in December. The prospectus claims that "future success... will depend on our ability to adapt to emerging technologies such as tokenization, cryptocurrencies [and] new authentication technologies." The company had previously said that it will not accept bitcoin as payment anytime soon but times are changing, especially with financial giants like PayPal and MasterCard pushing for more ubiquitous use of cryptocurrency.
Airbnb does not have any cryptocurrency or blockchain patents, which raises questions about its commitment to these technologies. If the company is serious, it needs to generate patents of its own, quickly, or take a hard look at some of these companies that already have portfolios:
Slock.it, which we recently covered here on Magic Number, uses blockchain to manage rental reservations and control IoT smart locks on properties. The start-up was acquired by smart city developer Blockchains in 2019 — a missed opportunity for Airbnb, which could have benefited greatly from integrating this technology into its rental "gig economy." Other companies in the sector include Social Equity, which uses smart contracts to automate agreements between roommates and guests; and Rentberry, which manages rental reservations, landlord/tenant profiles, and neighbor information using blockchain, typically for long-term rentals. Acquisitions or partnerships in the sector may be a better route for Airbnb given the current patent landscape and the company's recent layoffs of 25% of its workforce. You can view other cryptocurrency patents related to property and more on the Magic Number® Patent Radian®.
