JustEVA — AI Travel Management DApp

Recently I have been learning a lot about artificial intelligence (AI) and I have been trying to find examples of different use cases for it. I came across Evarians’ project JustEVA and I think it is a great example of how we can use AI in our everyday lives.

The meaning of AI in simple terms is when a computer or a machine is programmed to learn and problem solve from human interaction. These intelligent machines are constantly improving and aim to work and react like humans.

Most people will have used some form of AI, popular examples include Amazon’s Alexa which is available on their Echo devices and Apple’s Siri which is available on iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Alexa & Siri respond to voice commands and through this process, they learn your favourite playlists, your weekly shopping lists and lots of other regular tasks and activities.

Once the AI has learnt your preferences they can become a great help and make your life more efficient. For example, Alexa can instantly order your shopping and set reminders so you can keep up to date with your schedule.

JustEVA is a blockchain based application that uses AI technology to give users helpful travel tips that will help book holidays and business trips in a more time and cost efficient manner.

The app is named JustEVA because EVA is the bot that users will interact with whilst using the app. EVA uses AI to learn each individual users preferences and it will be able to book the cheapest flights, hotels, events, car rentals, or taxis in just one click.

Effectively EVA will become the world’s first virtual travel agent you will no longer need to visit loads of cost comparison sites and have bookings with lots of different companies. This means less paperwork and less time consumed. You can simply request the trip you want to go on, sit back, have a cup of tea and let JustEVA do it all for you. The AI will also store all your boarding passes and booking confirmations for you securely on their decentralised app.

Users will also have access to advanced voice recognition technology on the app and they will be able to book all their trips via voice command through their mobile phones. Just like how we use Siri and Alexa!

The app will also offer a car-share service that hopes to compete with the likes of Uber and Lyft. The car-sharing app comes with a generous reward system and for every $20 spent by a passenger they can then claim back $1 in tokens redeem on their next journey. Therefore, if you went on 20 journeys (booked through the JustEVA app)and each journey cost you approximately $20, after your twentieth journey you would have enough tokens for one free $20 trip!

These types of rewards aren’t currently available through existing car share or taxi services and it gives power back to the customer and shows good ethics as JustEVA want to be fair to their customers and reward them for their loyalty.
Development of the app and the platform is already underway and the team expect it to be ready by mid-2020.

The JustEVA team has many years of business experience, in particular, the CEO, Billy Alabasi, he has worked for more than 21 years in the transportation and hospitality industries in management and business operations. Billy has also run several successful businesses and he was very successful with real estate investments.

The rest of the team includes a transportation operator, corporate group coordinator, developer, creative content creator, graphic designer, web content writer, Asia-Pacific regional operator, blockchain consultant, financial & legal adviser and a technical adviser.

Billy Alabasi, CEO.

Most blockchain based projects run initial coin offerings to raise funds, this is when a project creates its own token that is either a utility token or a security token. Each token is normally purchased using Bitcoin or Ethereum. After a successful token sale where the soft cap (minimum funding) has been raised the token is then listed on a crypto exchange.

The line between security and utility token is normally very blurred and sometimes projects will try and use any kind of technicality to classify their token as a utility (tax advantageous for investors). This then makes the crypto market difficult to regulate as rules are bent and so-called ‘utility’ tokens are traded on an exchange like a security would be on the NYSE.

These tokens or assets are normally very volatile because the exchanges they are listed on to have limited liquidity and can be subject to market-making and manipulation by larger investors known as whales.

Some ICOs are downright pointless and the creation of a token to support their project is unnecessary. There has been over 900 ICOs this year and I have unfortunately come across a lot of these projects.

However, this isn’t what JustEVA is going to do. Instead, they are going down the traditional fundraising route of offering Class B shares Non-Voting Common Stock to investors. This is refreshing to see as they are still using blockchain technology but do not want to get tied into the cryptocurrency market.

The shares can be purchased through Start Engine, a fund-raising platform for startups that specializes in tech companies. Initial share price is $1.00 and the minimum investment is $100.00. Investors that contribute over $1,000.00 will receive a 10% bonus.

The minimum offering for JustEVA is $10k in shares and the maximum offering is $1.07m in shares. If the total amount is raised there still might be a requirement for additional funds.

There are some risks involved that can be found in the offering memorandum. The risks were highlighted by the auditor that looked over at their company’s records and finances before they applied for the stock offering.

Most of the risks they included are faced by all new tech startups for example lack of operating history and not being able to obtain adequate financing, limited transferability and liquidity, minimal operating capital and no significant assets and no revenue from operations.

The risks listed above are pretty self-explanatory as the company is using a crowd sale website to try and raise the funds for their project and not all startups receive massive financial backing initially.

The one problem that could majorly effect JustEVA’s development is that the team need to keep up with rapid technological changes and changes in users’ requirements and preferences. We now live in the day and age of technological advancement is so fast that some new technologies only last a year before they lose popularity or are replaced by something superior. JustEVA has set a release date of mid-2020 for their app and platform, this is a long way away and something entirely new might have come into the market and essentially steal their idea or take their place.
The shares will also have limited transferability and liquidity because it is unlikely the company will get listed on an exchange before they have finished development and started turning a profit.

For me personally, the advantages of JustEVA outweigh the disadvantages. My favourite aspects of the JustEVA project are: