Tokenisation of assets could change the way Indians do business, travel or transact in real estate

Summer vacations are here, and you’re excited that the annual trip you take with your family to a cold destination is only a week away.

But suddenly, something unexpected and unavoidable comes up at work, and you realise this vacation will have to be canned. You’re disappointed.

It pinches you even more because the flight tickets you had booked months in advance are non-refundable, so you watch helplessly as your money goes down the drain.

But what if you could give away the ticket or sell it to someone who needs it, just like you would a concert pass?

Given the current rules and regulations, the idea might sound preposterous, but it’s possible with tokenisation (blockchain). This technology could change the way Indians do business, travel or transact in real estate.

What’s Tokenisation?

Tokenisation is a process of taking something you own — a ticket, an apartment, or a piece of land — and turning it into small digital certificates that are stored on blockchain.

This token is a solid proof of ownership, and it’s easy to sell, transfer, or split an asset into smaller parts without any paperwork.

Take flight tickets, for example.

Instead of the usual process of getting a ticket, you go through a company — let’s call it TechTravel — which runs on blockchain and helps airlines turn flight tickets into digital tokens.

Now, your money won’t go to waste just because you are unable to travel. Once a ticket is tokenised, you can resell it to someone flying on the same route.

TravelX, a blockchain-based travel distribution start-up headquartered in Miami, Florida, has been showing the world for a while how it could be done, using an innovative technology built on Algorand.

In April 2022, Spanish airline Air Europa partnered with TravelX to offer the world’s first series of non-fungible token (NFT) airline tickets: the NFTickets. In March 2023, Flybondi, an Argentinian low-cost airline, also joined the NFTickets bandwagon.

Airlines could also benefit from this technology because when the