On-demand ride-sourcing markets with cryptocurrency-based fare-reward scheme

Cryptocurrency-based fare-reward scheme has been emerging from on-demand ride-sourcing platforms. The reward scheme provides each passenger with some units of cryptocurrency as rewards for use of ride service. The passengers can redeem the rewards for various redemption options. The redemption options offer the passengers economic benefits to offset a portion of costs of using ride services. In this way, the economic benefits serve as incentives for the passengers to repeatedly use ride services, which leads to increase in passenger demand for the platforms. From a passenger perspective, the reward scheme has a distinctive feature in that economic benefits can fluctuate according to changes in price of cryptocurrency in the future. Therefore, the passengers perceive the benefits differently based on their own risk preference and expectation of future price changes. It creates a challenge for the platforms because the optimal decisions for ride services vary by the value that the passengers place for their cryptocurrency rewards. To tackle this challenge, this paper analyzes the impacts of the reward scheme on on-demand ride-sourcing markets. The analysis is done with a mathematical model where a ride-sourcing platform makes decisions for trip fare, vehicle fleet size and cryptocurrency reward size. The reward decision is available under the assumption that the platform secures as many units of cryptocurrency as it rewards to passengers at their equilibrium price level. The model defines passengers' perceived value of cryptocurrency rewards in terms of risk aversion level and expectation of future price growth of cryptocurrency. Afterwards, we investigate equilibrium and optimal properties of monopoly, social-optimum and second-best optimum ride-sourcing markets. Our analysis gives several key insights on the markets. First, the markets always locate at normal regime where interactions between passenger demand and vehicle supply for ride services converges to a stable equilibrium state. Second, this study shows that a ride-sourcing platform would make a decision to reward if passengers expect larger economic benefits from future redemption of cryptocurrency rewards than their current value. Third, it is shown that the quality of ride services would get worse because average pick-up time for passengers and drivers gets longer with more passenger retention. Fourth, this paper finds that the markets have more room to improve profit or social welfare as passengers expect larger speculative gains from reward redemption.