dBnB | Devpost

Inspiration

AirBnB has revolutionized the way we see travel. By being able to either reserve entire homes for you and your family on trips, or by enabling property owners to generate extra revenue by renting out their homes, AirBnB has done a great job to improve the lives of both renter and rentee. For all the good AirBnB has done however, there is a glaring flaw: its centralization. All bookings must be done via the AirBnB app, and as a result, the centralized entity behind it has the personal information of all parties involved. As we move forward towards an age of decentralization and trust-less parties, a new alternative must be found. At dBnB, we are building a platform for renter and rentee to interface with each other directly, with no centralized entity viewing the information of the parties involved. This is all done on the Secret Network, which is a by-default smart contract-compatible blockchain built on Cosmos.

What it does

dBnB allows users to list their properties on the dApp, as well as allow users to choose from a list of properties to rent from. This is all done seamlessly via the dBnB dApp that connects to the user's Keplr wallet. By circumventing any centralized authority, and by using a private blockchain, users of this dApp can interface with each other in complete privacy and security.

How we built it

We're a Cosmos dApp built on Secret Network. We used React.js, Secret.js, and MaterialUI.

Challenges we ran into

Running a local chain was very difficult, and we accidentally crashed the chain several times during the testing phase. We also had trouble connecting the front-end to connect to the chain.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of the listings being added to the contract, pulling listings from the contract, segregating account access via public key cryptography + the added privacy of Secret Network, and the confirmation system

What we learned

We learned how to privately store information without the use of zk proofs. We also learned how to interface with a private blockchain. Secret is one of the few blockchains that are both private by default and smart contract compatible, enabling dApps such as dBnB.

What's next for dBnB

dBnB's next steps are to iron out its bugs and get it ready for launch. We will work on creating a beautiful UI/UX interface and ensure that users on both sides have the ability to securely list and rent properties. We will also implement a feature to allow users of dBnB to vote on governance within the app. The biggest use case of this is to allow disputes to be settled via a majority vote. In this scenario, if there is a dispute, the voters are incentivized to vote for the party whom they believe to be in the true, because the voters of the majority will then earn the coins of those in the minority.