Travel

My feed did it again. Third time in six weeks: something launches in the agentic commerce space, the usual suspects celebrate, and I find myself writing about it. In late December I published an architecture for agentic travel distribution that I’d been designing for months; that one was proactive, and the reactions suggested it resonated. Then Google launched UCP two weeks later, and I wrote about what travel needs from it. Now ERC-8004, the Ethereum standard for “Trustless Agents,” goes live on mainnet, and my timeline is a chorus of people announcing that AI agents finally have identity, reputation, and wallets. (I managed to resist when Coinbase launched x402, so at least there’s that.) ...

A follow-up to “Why your AI travel agent can dream up the perfect trip but can’t book it” I published that article on December 29th. Two weeks later, back at my desk with inbox overflowing, I find that Google has launched the Universal Commerce Protocol, co-developed with Shopify, Walmart, Target, Etsy, and Wayfair, and endorsed by twenty-plus others including Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe (apparently I wasn’t the only one busy during the holidays). Their roadmap explicitly mentions “Travel, Services” as upcoming verticals. ...

The travel digital identity gap, and why blockchain bridges it Late September, I’m in Heraklion for our Travel Un’chained conference. Michael Ros from Sleap.io and I are at the resort reception, and they hand us forms (name, ID number, address, all the fields) before taking our ID cards and disappearing to make photocopies. In 2025. Facial recognition at airports, digital wallets on our phones, and a process still requiring a paper scan. I know we both used the anecdote to smile with other attendees, so with this article I officially exhaust its value as storytelling. ...

And how the infrastructure we’ve been building for 2.5 years might finally make it possible It’s December 2025, and AI agents are everywhere. ChatGPT plans your honeymoon to the Maldives. Claude designs a three-week backpacking itinerary through Japan. Perplexity finds you that off-the-beaten-path trattoria in Bologna. Then comes the moment of truth: “Book it.” And the magic collapses. Your agent stutters. It can’t actually check if that boutique ryokan has availability. It hallucinates a confirmation number. It sends you to Booking.com, which means starting the search all over again. Or worse: a Spanish influencer couple recently missed a flight because ChatGPT incorrectly advised them they didn’t need a visa for Puerto Rico, without mentioning the ESTA. The AI was confidently, dangerously wrong. ...

Programme context and Chain4Travel’s participation In late 2024, the European Central Bank (ECB) launched an innovation platform seeking “pioneers” and “visionaries” to collaborate on digital euro development. The programme aimed to demonstrate how conditional payments could be implemented technically, provide opportunities for participants to interact with simulated digital euro interfaces, and explore additional use cases for the digital currency. As part of their preparation phase for a potential digital euro launch, the ECB invited stakeholders including merchants, banks, payment service providers, fintech companies, and technical experts to participate in this groundbreaking initiative. ...

The making of ITB is always a sight to be witnessed. As it’s the ITB Berlin itself. This year I’m especially proud to be on stage to share my insider’s point of view on blockchain for travel at the #ITBBerlinConvention: see you today on the eTRAVEL STAGE in hall 6.1 at 13:20, or let’s meet for a live demo of the solutions developed by Peakwork Web3’s A-Team, each day at 14:30 at Peakwork booth 107 in hall 5.1. ...

Reporting live from the floor at DER Touristik Online GmbH where the stage is getting prepared and DER Hackathon teams will be pitching today their solutions to the challenge on #sustainability💚 in #travel: tokenize Sustainable Aviation Fuel on Camino Network for novel interoperability between anchor industry players DER and Lufthansa, with the traveler and travel ecosystem at large in mind. I witnessed stellar talent💻 and good vibes🍻 during the last three code-filled days, and can testify to the quality of the pitches💯: can’t wait to see what the jury panel will think of the proposed ideas! ...

Do yourself a favor and don’t miss the next edition of W3Summit: yesterday Sara Noggler and team put together an event curated to perfection, to be laser-focused on Web3 industry adoption. I learnt and engaged with Alberto Borri and Marco Tullio Giordano to validate legal topics related to on-ramp and off-ramp aspects of our actual use cases with Peakwork AG customers. Heard updates from Telemaco Rossi, Davide Sgherri and Aljoša Ota on their respective use cases at Telepass, Dolce&Gabbana and Slovenia. I will follow up with all of you, as I believe that our NFTs will interact to enhance customer experience to fulfill #Web3 #composability promise. ...

After this last “stealth” month I am very excited to showcase at ITB Berlin - the world’s leading travel trade show - what has been cooking at Peakwork AG and we are now introducing: our novel Web3 Travel Platform, powered by the next level of travel technology. If you want to know more about solutions for vouchers + trading + loyalty in complex cross-partner scenarios, yet featuring delightful and seamless UX for businesses and travelers, then come by the booth and have a chat with Manuel Saballus, Christian Liebig or myself: we will be delighted to talk about your next Web3 project. ...

In a moment where the focus can’t be only on people’s #travel, airlines are boosting their other focus as the fabric of commerce and logistics. #blockchain fits naturally in this space, and it’s exciting to follow the progress of this initiative less fancy but well positioned to democratize the cargo #aviation. Originally posted on LinkedIn