As the popularity of cryptos grows, new adaptions of cryptos develop as well. One of them is crypto-tourism, significantly boosted by various blockchain luxurious tours and rental payment startups. Among them, there are such names as The Blockchain Cruises and CryptoCribs, which enable tourism for cyber money-lovers.
Millionaires’ Parties With The Blockchain Cruise
The Blockchain Cruises have become quite attractive to tourists recently. They are arranged by a digital assets wallet provider CoinsBank, by the tourism arm of Edinburgh. The former has already organized two cruises for crypto-millionaires. The third one is yet to be held in September, through the Mediterranean Sea.
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Besides hard parties, there are also speakers taking the floor. Among them, there are such crypto-household names as John McAfee, Roger Ver, and Bobby Lee, Coindesk reports.
Interestingly, 2,300 people are expected to pop up on the upcoming tour. However, 50% of the tickets have already been booked – and they range between $1,000-$3,000. For the next cruise, there are planned hackathons and even Miss Blockchain event.
So is all that the enhancement of crypto-community or propaganda of elite lifestyle and cryptos?
So What Is That?
According to Leigh Cuen, the author of “Crypto Tourism Is Growing – For Better or Worse” on Coindesk, not all events and experiences related to cyber assets are created identical.
For example, lots of DLT projects have been related to virtual tokens increases. Hence, more cruises and tours appeared to make people familiar with them and businesses behind these tokens.
The problem with such ICO tours can be in the opacity of correlation between education and promotion.
Erasmus Elsner, one of the CryptoCribs’s constitutors, has said concerning the issue:
"The [ICO] tours ... in Europe, we have these coffee tours where you get senior citizens on a bus and then try to sell them some shady product, it sounds a little like this."
CryptoCribs, by the way, is a blockchain startup, home-sharing platform which is trying to liberate rental markets. Apparently, its co-founder believes that crypto-tours help people understand the crypto-partnership.
This company on its own has already arranged 170 cruises, and that’s only after it launched in September last year.
Elsner added:
"You have the experienced hosts who want to host crypto-enthusiasts from around the world, and you also have people who are new to space and want to learn more about it. They feel like this is a great way to get some of their first bitcoin or litecoin, or whatever, and to use it."
Easy Crypto-Payment and Strengthening of The Community
From Elsner’s remarks, it can be seen that such tours endorse the crypto-community, making it expand and thrive.
Indeed, such programs can help crypto-newcomers make an acquaintance with the sharks of the industry as well as cyber money enthusiasts from drastically opposite directions come together and exchange ideas.
Due to this, some platforms permit crypto-travelers pay in various virtual coins and even in fiat. For instance, CryptoCribs accepts payments in such units as BTC, BCH, LTC, and ETH, and also in a set of public currencies. The latter option is for those people who haven’t bought any cryptos yet.
Thus, cryptos can be promoted better as there get together not only the professionals.
Another reason for such meetings is that they let developers share ideas. An excellent example of exciting collaboration can be CryptoCribs devs dealing with Ethereum Foundation. They aimed to develop smart contracts for P2P operations between guests and hosts. For that, they wanted to use ERC-725, the ethereum token standard.
Not Everything is So Seamless
However, some members of the crypto-community may take such moves not as an enhancement of the industry but like political propaganda, as Leigh Cuen continues writing.
The author gives an example of the community surrounding the tech central Silicon Valley in Israel. There have been held several tours to introduce tourists to the flourishing tech sector in Israel.
Some critics of these excursions blame them in propaganda, whereas the tours get support from the Jewish country's nationalist agencies. It is noteworthy that critics believe such trips whitewash Israeli adverse moves towards Palestinian fintech infrastructure. Moreover, they are thought to ignore the fact how Palestinians explore DLT too, the author pointed.
So all in all, as lots of things in the world of technology, crypto-tours can also be considered as double-edged swords.
