Tride — Intercity Carpooling on Stellar
Introduction
Tride is a non-custodial, escrow-based intercity carpooling marketplace built on Stellar, enabling drivers to monetize empty seats and passengers to book verified rides with transparent payments and enforceable cancellation rules.
The problem
Intercity travel often suffers from:
- high costs and unreliable pricing,
- lack of trust between strangers,
- cancellations/no-shows with no fair recourse,
- fragmented payment experiences (cash, transfers, scams, disputes).
Drivers regularly travel with empty seats, while passengers struggle to find safe, affordable, predictable options—especially for common routes (e.g., Kaduna → Abuja).
The solution
Tride connects drivers and passengers for seat-based bookings on scheduled intercity trips. The key innovation is mandatory on-chain escrow that enforces clear rules for:
- booking and seat inventory,
- cancellations and refunds,
- driver payouts and platform fees,
- no-show handling,
- automatic payout finalization (no admin / no discretionary control).
All trip logistics (pickup point, identity verification, chat, navigation) remain off-chain for privacy and usability, while payments and settlement are on-chain for transparency and reliability.
How it works (user flow)
- A driver posts a trip (Origin → Destination, departure time, price per seat, available seats).
- Passengers discover trips and book 1+ seats (group bookings supported).
- Passenger funds are locked in USDC escrow on Stellar (non-custodial).
- At pickup, the passenger confirms they’ve boarded (passenger-signed check-in).
- On completion:
- both can confirm completion, or
- the driver can auto-finalize payout after an arrival timeout (prevents griefing).
- The driver is paid, and the platform takes a percentage fee.
Why Stellar + USDC
- Fast, low-fee settlement suited for frequent small transactions.
- USDC pricing keeps fares stable and understandable.
- Strong ecosystem support for payments-focused consumer apps.
- Smart contracts (Soroban) enable programmable escrow without custody.
Trust & safety design (pragmatic, v1-ready)
Tride separates concerns:
- On-chain: escrow, refunds, payouts, platform fee, immutable settlement receipts.
- Off-chain: identity verification, driver/vehicle profiles, ratings, messaging, dispute evidence, and route logistics.
To reduce abuse without an admin key:
- Passenger check-in (“boarded”) is a passenger-signed on-chain action.
- No-show rules have a grace window and are enforced by contract logic.
- Reputation/verification can be layered in over time.
Cancellation & refund policy (clear + enforceable, no-admin)
Tride uses time-based rules around the scheduled departure:
- Early cancellation → full refund
- Later cancellation → partial refund + driver compensation + small platform fee
- No-show → driver compensated
- Driver cancels → full refund to passengers
- After “boarded,” driver can still receive payout via timeout auto-finalize, even if passenger disappears
This makes outcomes predictable and reduces disputes.
Business model
- Take rate on completed rides (e.g., 10%).
- Smaller fee on late cancellations/no-shows (e.g., 5%).
- Future optional revenue: verification services, premium placement for drivers, subscription tiers for frequent drivers, route-based partnerships.
What makes Tride different
- Non-custodial escrow by default (users control their funds; no platform custody risk).
- Deterministic settlement rules (no admin arbitration required).
- Seat inventory & group bookings built into the payment layer.
- Designed for real intercity commerce, not just crypto payments.
MVP scope (what we plan to ship first)
Web app + smart contracts for one initial corridor (e.g., Kaduna ↔ Abuja):
- Driver trip creation (price per seat, schedule, capacity)
- Passenger discovery + booking (multi-seat)
- USDC escrow funding
- Boarding confirmation
- Completion + auto-finalize payout
- Cancellation/no-show flows
- Basic off-chain profiles + ratings hooks
What we’re looking for
Partners / investors
- Strategic support to expand route coverage, onboard drivers, and build trust/verification rails.
- Stellar ecosystem partners for tooling, grants, and stablecoin/payment integrations.
Contributing
We welcome contributors across:
- Soroban smart contract engineering (escrow + state machine)
- Frontend (React/Next.js) + Stellar wallet integrations
- Indexing/event processing (to power trip search + booking status)
- Off-chain/API design (for profiles, ratings, messaging)
- Security reviews (contract + app)
- Product design and UX (boarding flow, safety UX, verification UX)