According to the prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its IPO, Airbnb has shown interest in the adoption of emerging technologies, including tokenization, cryptocurrencies and other applications of blockchain technology

In the past, Airbnb had said that the company had no plans to consider bitcoin or any cryptocurrency as a mode of payment. But now, the official filing states that the home-rental platform is open to considering technologies like distributed ledger, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and cloud technologies for the future.

In recent years, many international companies have started accepting cryptocurrencies. The Coronavirus pandemic has escalated the rate of adoption. Finance magnates reported earlier about PayPal and its plan for cryptocurrencies.

In the filing, Airbnb said its future success will depend on its ability to embrace new technologies such as blockchain, in order to support and develop its platform. “Future success will…depend on our ability to adapt to emerging technologies such as tokenization, cryptocurrencies, and new authentication technologies. As a result, we intend to continue to spend significant resources maintaining, developing, and enhancing our technologies and platform. However, these efforts may be more costly than expected and may not be successful.”

Should Airbnb officially onboard digital currency payments, the move would be expected to generate significant interest within the Bitcoin community, as well as raising the profile of digital currencies for payment more widely.

While Airbnb is only planning onboarding digital currency payments, XcelTrip — decentralized travel platform already accepts digital payments in BTC, ETH, Litecoin, Ormeus, KAU, USDT, ECO, OMC and XcelToken Plus. Check XcelTrip Platform where you could easily book flight, hotel with BTC and other cryptocurrencies. Check-in at over 2.3 million hotels and book tickets with over 450 airlines at XcelTrip. The platform allows for the travelers to book their tickets and stays using cryptocurrencies, which enables them to cut out credit card and other miscellaneous expenditure that they would incur if they were to book their trips in fiat.