What is BTU Protocol Project?

The Booking Token Unit (BTU) protocol is a decentralized platform that provides support for any decentralized application (DApp) or web sites that implement booking features for their end-users. The protocol aims to merge the benefits of using decentralized smart contracts, whilst also providing interoperability among the DApps that incorporate it.

Booking Token Unit (BTU) protocol is a standardized building block for any decentralized application (dApp) or web site willing to implement booking features for their end-users. The BTU protocol also brings interoperability among decentralized applications that incorporate it. BTU protocol is currently under standardization in the Ethereum ecosystem as ERC-808. BTU token will be an ERC20 token running the protocol. All platforms implementing the BTU protocol would benefit from a hybrid approach combining an on-chain smart contract and off-chain software components, providing more scalability. A transparent and public inventory enabled by an open-source protocol would considerably lower the entry barriers to many internet booking markets.

BTU Protocol's Benefits and Specification

A reservation process involves at least 4 parties or components : a provider, a booker, a booking infrastructure and the RES smart contract.

Provider: The provider is an entity providing its own resource or a third-party party resource to be booked

Booker: The booker is an entity that books the resource for itself or a third party

Booking infrastructure: The booking infrastructure is the public “location” where providers can “post” resource availability data and where these resources can be reserved by bookers. The booking infrastructure facilitates signaling between providers and bookers by aggregating a high volume of resource type and availabilities.

RES: RES is the smart contract implementation of the decentralized standardized BTU protocol.

Specification and sequence of steps

The BTU protocol involves potentially ten steps and our standardized decentralized reservation contract (RES). Some of following steps can be relayed off-chain, but are always settled on-chain.

Hereafter the general sequence :

● (Step 1.1) Provider is creating an “availability offer” (OFFER) specifying :

○ resource id OR bundle id. A bundle is a group of resources.

○ resource name OR bundle name

○ resource category

○ deposit amount in BTU : amount requested for escrow in order to allow a reservation request

○ commission amount in BTU : amount paid to booker

○ availability start date,

○ availability end date

○ limit date and time for a free reservation cancellation

○ signed (r,s,v) hash of previous information. This signed hash serves as a signed identifier of the resource to be reserved.

○ Metadatas : daily price of the resource (fiat amount to be paid at resource “delivery”), links to images, long description, key-values that can be used as search criteria, etc...

The availability data is broadcasted over any communication channel, ideally a decentralized off-chain solution.

● (Step 1.2) At any moment, the provider can update the resource metadata by broadcasting a new message.

It is very common that yield management requires many prices (fiat price of the resource) update during the same day. This update only impacts the off-chain components.

● (Step 2) Booker is looking for a resource is querying all resources matching his criteria and is selecting a resource he is willing to reserve

● (Step 3.1) In the same operation :

○ Booker is approving to RES smart contract the required amount of BTU to make the booking (amount defined in step 1.1 by the provider)

○ A booking entry is registered into the smart contract with following information

■ Signed hash of resource

■ Signed pointer to all full offer information (datas + metadatas) at the moment of the reservation request. Those information are stored in the offchain booking infrastructure.

■ Public address matching the hash signature

■ desired reservation start date

■ desired reservation end date

■ status : RESERVATION_REQUESTED

● (Step 3.2) Booker broadcasts the resource reservation request to the Booking infrastructure adding all end-user profile information off-chain that may be necessary for the reservation approval. This would help comply with privacy protection requirements. It is the responsibility of the Booker to notify its end user customer of the full resource information and the provider signature (Availability “snapshot” data). This can be used as proof of reservation details in (the extreme) case resource information at reservation time is deleted from off-chain infrastructure.

● (Step 4) Provider is validating the reservation request and broadcasts the new status to “RESERVATION_CONFIRMED”.

● (Step 5) RES smart contract is updating the reservation status to “RESERVATION_CONFIRMED”

● (Step 6.1 - Optional) Booker cancels the reservation by broadcasting a cancellation request. This triggers a submission to the RES smart contract that empties the registries for this resource. Depending on the conditions and cancellation date, the BTU escrowed into the RES smart contract are affected back to the user or to the provider

● (Step 6.2 - Optional) Provider cancels the reservation by broadcasting a cancellation request. This triggers a submission to the RES smart contract that empties the registries for this resource. RES smart contract is releasing the escrowed amount to booker.

● (Step 7.1 & 7.2) Booker is notifying that the resource has been paid (presumably at resource check-out). RES smart contract is releasing the escrowed BTU back to user in addition to a BTU agreed commission.

BTU Protocol TEAM

Vidal Chriqui is the inventor of ERC-808 Smart Contract and managing director for the platform. He has an extensive background in big data, and distribution systems. His work is what eventually guided him to his early work on Bitcoin and eventually Ethereum. He shows a lot of expertise in small micropayment channels, that is relatable to nearly every cryptocurrency on the market.

He was enthralled by Bitcoin and their vision of becoming a masterpiece of sorts in terms of computer architecture, while at the same time taking the economy into consideration and mixing technical marvel with it. His fascination for the cryptocurrency caused him to launch “Blockchain Revolution,” the first free French speaking video series based on Blockchains and Bitcoin. It was full of hours of information about the two topics, including interviews with industry experts. He’s a regular speaker at conferences about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. He’s also been an advisor to several different successful ICOs and token sale, even writing whitepapers for several of them and the helping with the tokenomics design. Vidal is supported fully by Herve Hababou, president of the company and an experienced blockchain and cryptocurrency expert as well. You can learn more about him on the company website. He is also one of the smartest professionals in the blockchain industry.

Other than the two men mentioned above, there is a team of more than ten advisors, and even more strategic business partners which are simply other entities in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. To see a full roadmap of where the company intends to go, head to the company website and see it under the team and partners section.

The BTU token

The BTU token is an ERC20 token working in conjunction with a ERC-808 standard reference implementation contract that is compliant with most booking processes.

The BTU token is issued on top of Ethereum public infrastructure. It can be used as :

Deposit value for booking a resource : The deposit is an incentive for any Booker to cancel its reservation on time. If the resource is not released, the deposit will be kept by the resource owner.
Reward mechanisms : BTU tokens can be used to reward usage of the protocol. This would incentivize consumption of those resources through the BTU infrastructure rather than via other legacy and incumbent platforms that may list the same resources.

Our vision is that a large share of the legacy platform commissions (15 to 35%) can be used to incentivize new platforms connections to the BTU infrastructure.

Furthermore, envelopment entails entry by one platform provider into another’s market by bundling its own functionalities with that of the target’s so as to leverage shared user relationships and common components.

With BTU tokens, a standard protocol and open source software, dominant firms that otherwise are sheltered from entry due to strong network effects and high switching costs can be vulnerable to such envelopment attacks.

For more information:

Website: https://www.btu-protocol.com

Whitepaper: https://www.btu-protocol.com/pdf/whitepaper.pdf

Telegram: https://t.me/btucommunity

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BtuProtocol?lang=en

Medium: https://medium.com/@BTUProtocolTeam/latest

Author: tinhkhuat

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1885373