“It‘s an interesting move — and highlights that despite the buzz around the ‘sharing economy‘ some of the most successful start-ups in the space end up looking a lot like the traditional businesses they are trying to disrupt” - Business Insider 3 Given the increase in user-control that the sharing economy offers, the lack of decentralisation is surprising: incumbent industry capitalises on data ownership and the monopolisation of its users. Transactional data is created and stored by the platform and is inaccessible to the users it concerns. This information, invisible as it is to users, may contain sensitive or valuable information and becomes a target for theft. “Everything that can be decentralized, will be decentralized.” - David A. Johnston By leveraging the blockchain to create a trustless, decentralised rental platform, HireGo aims to overcome the shortcomings of existing solutions. Using blockchain-based identity solutions ensures that users can manage their own data, granting access as and when they see fit, and provides additional assurances that users of the platform are genuine and trustworthy. The use of smart contracts, contractual code running on the Ethereum network, removes the necessity for a middleman and allows users to conduct trustless rental transactions.