Asheesh Birla, GM of RippleNet in his product brainstorm Tech Talk #1 expressed:  For businesses who have yet to employ a Web3/Crypto strategy, you’re missing out on a huge growth opportunity. And if you’re only thinking about Crypto as another payment option for customers – you’re missing the forest for the trees. Take Uber as an example.

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO Uber, recently mentioned a desire to accept crypto payments in the future. With over 100MM active users, Uber is sitting on a massive opportunity for (even more) growth. I mapped out a few different angles they could take, with a focus on leveraging their local footprint.

Start by embedding crypto custody into the Uber app and instantly bring 100MM+ users into crypto with an Uber hosted wallet. Combining their robust payment onramp with a crypto wallet, automatically makes Uber an instant leader in Web3. The numbers speak for themselves.

Revamp the Uber loyalty program w/ NFTs (aka collect & earn NFTs through app usage or Uber wallet NFT drops at local events). Different NFTs earn you access to local celebrities, sports teams, merchants, excl experiences, etc. They can also be resold on an NFT marketplace.

Top tier customers also earn NFTs that can be redeemed as company stock (post-registration) – giving customers an incentive to get skin in the game.

Uber operates in 80+ countries – it could use solutions like Ripple’s ODL platform to payout drivers around the world instantly w/out expensive treasury operational costs. Also enable immigrant Uber drivers to easily remit some earnings back home.

Leverage stablecoins and solutions like Solana Pay to pay local merchants and UberEats partners. Merchants have an incentive to adopt these methods because they can save credit card fees and obtain settlement in realtime vs weeks as per credit card issuing banks.

This is just a starting point, but important thing is to start! Companies who are too slow to adopt risk missing the boat altogether. You don’t want to be the last Blockbuster drowning in a sea of Netflixes.

Community Response:  Looks like we are entering the accelerated growth portion of the tech adoption curve for crypto/web 3. I think in the same amount of time it took for us to get from 0-10% adoption, we will go from 10-90% adoption. Uber should be a pioneer.

Next will be Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, grocery chains, Airlines, and beyond. Basically, any company that wants fast settlements and low-cost transactions without borders. Global commerce needs all the above.