Traveltech

🇰🇪 A week late, an after-the-fact post on The Hotel Expo, and why distribution and payments will consolidate the link between East Africa and Europe. Written from the Coast, after six days of follow-ups. I was at THX in Nairobi on the opening keynote panel and presenting TTM on stage; what follows is the argument that survived the meetings afterwards. Nobody builds a Maasai Mara: you can’t manufacture the thing East Africa actually sells. And “welcome”, karibu, is a disposition: you cannot write it into a brand standard, and you notice it ten minutes after landing from Europe. ...

🇩🇪 I’ll be at ITB Berlin, 3 to 5 March. If you’re working on agentic commerce in travel, or if you’re sitting on the Africa or Southeast Asia side of a corridor where cross-border settlement is still the embarrassing part of an otherwise working booking flow, find me. I have a few slots open, and I’m working on something I can’t name yet that is directly relevant to both of those problems. DM me and we’ll find out if we match. ...

ERC-8004 just went live on Ethereum mainnet, and for the third time in six weeks something ships in agentic commerce and I end up writing about it. (I managed to resist when Coinbase launched x402, so at least there’s some self-control left.) But the pace itself is the story: MCP, UCP, ACP, ERC-8004, x402, all reaching production between late 2025 and January 2026. Eighteen months from “agents can use tools” to “agents have passports and bank accounts.” That’s genuinely unusual for standards work. ...

10 major European banks just unveiled their stablecoin giant: Qivalis. It’s the headline the industry awaited. For us at Chain4Travel, this announcement is the culmination of a 1-year journey reshaping travel payments. 🚀 Here is how we got here: Oct 9, 2024 — ECB B2B Payments Workshop. We present travel’s case for programmable money to 150+ experts, connect with ING’s digital assets team, and collaborate on requirements for their stablecoin project. Dec 4 — Monerium’s EURe announced on Camino testnet, complementing historical partner SH Digital’s EURSH tokenized deposit. Multiple regulated euro options for travel businesses: different rails, same destination. Feb-May 2025 — ING tests minting on Camino. Chain4Travel among ~70 pioneers selected for the ECB Digital Euro Innovation Platform, testing how retail CBDC conditional payments sync with blockchain settlement for travel B2B. Jun 12 — While in Nairobi to speak at Kenya Blockchain and Crypto Conference, I witness a thriving stablecoin ecosystem in action, powering last-mile payments. The infrastructure is proven. Wake-up call for Europe: Africa isn’t waiting. Sep 25 — 9 major European banks announce consortium for stablecoin: ING, UniCredit, Danske, CaixaBank, SEB, Deka, Sella, KBC, Raiffeisen Bank International. Sep 26 — ECB presents in Milan platform findings: B2B, offline, and blockchain sync are priorities for 2026. We pushed for these. Sep 29 — Chain4Travel’s Travel Un’chained: ING’s Jan Lebbe presents the consortium to 170 travel C-levels. SAP shows Digital Currency Hub: stablecoins integrated into ERP with automated reconciliation & audit trails. MTS Globe reveals Payment Hub on Camino: 95% workload reduction, 4.6s execution, <€0.001/tx, 0% failures. Late Oct — Back in Kenya on holiday. I buy a flight with stablecoins on Trip.com, B2C is here. Then M-Shwari (M-PESA savings) goes down for 3 days. Balances show zero despite real savings. 7.4M users, KES 49B deposits, inaccessible. Funds are safe, but a decentralized architecture would have avoided sync errors. On-chain + last mile is the way M-PESA Africa. Dec 1 — BNP Paribas joins the consortium. Now 10 anchor European banks. Dec 2 — Qivalis unveiled: the Amsterdam-based entity, Jan-Oliver Sell as CEO, Sir Howard Davies leading Supervisory Board, Floris Lugt designated CFO. DNB e-money license in progress. Launch H2 2026. ...

🇪🇸📍Live from Decode Travel Barcelona. I’m nearing a dozen hackathons under my belt, but kicking off the 4th edition of Decode Travel stands out. Metrics are showing real traction. Stablecoins anyone? Agentic everything 2025? We are finally seeing the convergence of AI with a foundation layer that enables agentic (yes) transactions, digital payments, and digital identity to happen in a trusted and certain way. No spoilers… but I have a feeling we’re going to see live examples of this on Friday. Jury, get ready 😉 ...

🇮🇹 Tomorrow at Il Salone dei Pagamenti in Milan - finally spending quality time in my hometown. As VP Product at Chain4Travel, I’m focused on digital payment and identity infrastructure for travel. I’m looking to partner with neobanks, payment processors, stablecoin issuers, and digital wallet providers to link payment rails directly to bookings on Camino Network - enabling atomic transactions that reduce costs and accelerate settlement. With this year’s theme on AI and agentic commerce, the timing feels right: as autonomous agents start handling travel purchases, a transaction layer that grounds payments and identity to blockchain-based source of truth becomes essential. ...

🇹🇭 Plot twist! On my way back from GM Vietnam, I’ll be stopping in Bangkok for Techsauce Global Summit 2025 (August 4-6) at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. Broader than blockchain/crypto, TechSauce brings together 300+ speakers across 13 stages covering AI transformation, corporate innovation, fintech, healthtech, and foodtech. Perfect opportunity to connect with the wider tech ecosystem and explore how Camino Network’s blockchain infrastructure fits into Southeast Asia’s digital transformation, always bringing next-gen travel infrastructure to the mix. ...

One more step towards the future of travel payments: we wrapped up our participation in the ECB’s Digital euro (official page) Pioneer Programme, where we demonstrated how central bank digital currencies can enhance the travel industry’s complex payment infrastructure. We strive to give Camino Network partners and the travel industry the best options when it comes to digital money, and among these, CBDCs represent a compelling opportunity alongside stablecoins and other innovations. From automated supplier settlements to multi-party commission splits - we’re building the “TravelFi” bridge between banking and blockchain. ...

🇻🇳 I’ll be at GM Vietnam - Vietnam Blockchain Week on August 1-2 in Hanoi. Now resident in this part of the world, I look forward to connecting with the speakers and many many builders (more than 20,000 expected!) shaping Southeast Asia’s Web3 landscape. The event focuses on practical infrastructure driving real adoption - DePIN networks, AI/Web3 integration, and regulatory frameworks creating institutional pathways. I will represent Camino Network in exploring how blockchain infrastructure can serve Southeast Asia’s travel sector through cross-border payments, distribution networks, and digital identity solutions. SEA’s mobile-first payment culture and high digital adoption rates create ideal conditions for coupling local last-mile rails to our blockchain-based transactional layer, and enabling AI-powered travel booking and seamless onsite experiences through our secure, decentralized building blocks. ...

Africa isn’t waiting for Web3 tourism and payment rails: it’s already integrating them, because it only makes sense to unleash real travel cases. KBCC 2025 in Nairobi proved that beyond any doubt. First, massive thanks to Sheila Waswa and Vivian Kisaka for creating something truly special. Over 2,000 participants with CEXs and startups in force. Still, what struck me most was witnessing the real-world adoption happening here. Many providing the exact infrastructure links I’ve been looking for: payment rails connecting #TradFi to blockchain. Hotels and travel operators ready to implement on-chain solutions to extend their reach. Project Mocha and AgriDexPlatform transforming coffee trade and cross-border agricultural commerce, and showing how they could be a natural fit for touristic corporate ESG programs that demand for transparency in destination. ...