Bringing decentralized ride-hailing to peaq and the Polkadot ecosystem
Collaboration is key and part of our core values! So, we are proud to start 2023 with a new, fruitful partnership: bloXmove meets peaq. In this cooperation, bloXmove will provide the layer-2 protocol layer for dApps focusing on mobility, charging and parking on the peaq network.
By design this will be a collaborative effort: owned by users, contributing developers and ventures — not hyper-aggregating tech giants. Bringing our novel #NFTicket technology to peaq, we will build a blockchain-powered alternative to popular ride-hailing apps like Uber.
Ok, sounds interesting — I want to know more…
In a nutshell: we at bloXmove, as Web3 developers focusing on the power and mobility industries, join the peaq ecosystem as a layer-2, i.e. application protocol, platform for mobility and charging dApps, bringing our industry know-how and novel #NFTicket protocol to the peaq community. As its first project on peaq, bloXmove will build a Web3 alternative to popular ride-hailing apps, a “Decentralized UBER”, owned by drivers and riders, not by tech giants. We will also be inviting the community to take part in a hackathon for the project later in 2023.
If you missed our latest piece about the decentralization of mobility by our CTO, Harry Behrens, click here.
Together with peaq, the Web3 network powering the Economy of Things, we will launch our decentralized ride-hailing application and the underlying NFTicket components on peaq’s layer-1 blockchain network. This is part of our ongoing efforts to establish ourselves as THE protocol for #DeMo (decentralized mobility) — across as many networks and protocols as possible.
In parallel to launching our decentralized ride-hailing application on the network, we will jointly organize a hackathon event supported with community initiatives and grants from the peaq Foundation. This is currently slated for March.
Why Ride-Hailing on peaq?
Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Gett have become staples of the mobility as a service (#MaaS) industry, with the former alone reporting almost two billion rides in its Q3 report for 2022. While useful in their own right, these platforms are not without their flaws, sparking controversies by their use of intricate price-setting algorithms that amp up rates during emergencies and charging drivers — low paid workers — an outsized commission fee. Leveraging drivers’ and riders’ private data, Uber is also no stranger to controversies around privacy.
“Blockchain and other Web3 technologies put the mobility service ecosystems on a fairer footing,” says our CEO Sophia Rödiger. “Together with peaq, we are shifting the highly centralized and rent-extracting control of the ecosystem from the hands of Big Tech aggregating intermediaries and giving the ownership and profit back to the drivers and users. Service delivery in Power & Mobility is very machine-oriented, relying on assets like cars, two-wheelers, charging and battery-swapping stations, and runs on multitudes of microtransactions. peaq offers a vast toolset for machine-focused decentralized applications, and we are looking forward to leveraging its full potential. peaq’s strategic orientation perfectly contributes to bloXmove’s focus on mobility in emerging markets like Africa or Latin America.”
What are the next steps and planned outcomes of the partnership?
We are joining the peaq ecosystem to create a more transparent, fair, and privacy-focused mobility paradigm. bloXmove will leverage peaq’s layer-1 blockchain network with an array of machine-oriented functions, including Self-Sovereign Machine Identities (SSI and DID) and Role-Based Access Control, to build a Web3 rendition of a ride-hailing service running on smart contracts and crypto. It will also be able to make use of peaq’s wider industry compliance through participation in top consortia groups including MOBI and Gaia-X 4FM moveID.
Together with bloXmove’s membership in OMEGA-X, the Mobility Data Space and IDUnion, this gives a broad presence across European industrial and research organisations in the area of web3, decentralization and mobility.
Scope of initial launch
The decentralized application, which will start off as a scalable proof-of-concept with the eventual goal of advancing to a production-grade version, will be designed to give users maximum privacy by ensuring full, self-sovereign, ownership over their data. It will leverage bloXmove’s NFTicket protocol, part of our protocol and mechanism toolbox, that will provide new tools for ventures and teams building on peaq. We will also leverage our vast experience from building a ride-hailing dApp in Nigeria. The project will incorporate with peaq’s Machine DeFi and borderless machine subsidy mechanisms to empower communities in emerging markets. By leveraging smart contracts on a public blockchain, it will give all stakeholders a clear view of its inner workings, including fair pricing mechanisms. The dApp will also remove the middleman fee, allowing the drivers to earn more while charging the customers less.
In March, bloXmove and peaq will host a hackathon event. peaq will support the hackathon with community engagement initiatives and grants. Further down the road, bloXmove will explore deploying more dApps on peaq, leveraging the network to build various mobility-oriented tools and jointly entering further emerging markets.
“Web3 offers a better alternative to the traditional centralized architecture that mobility as a service apps rely on,” says Till Wendler, co-founder of peaq. “By bringing together bloXmove’s expertise in the mobility space and peaq’s vast machine-focused toolset, we are creating a foundation for a new paradigm for the industry — and putting it on a pathway to a healthier and more sustainable business formula. This initiative perfectly complements the projects already underway in the ecosystem and opens an array of exciting new opportunities.”
Stay tuned and prepare for the Hackathon Event in a few months.
About bloXmove
bloXmove is a Web3 solution provider working to create a worldwide decentralized and collaborative mobility alliance alongside an efficient green energy reality. By using blockchain components like the latest developed NFTicket protocol, bloXmove bridges innovative technology with industry solutions to increase security, automation, and efficiency in cross-company transactions as well as contracts. Incubated with Mercedes, accelerated by 3 co-founders in the Outlier Ventures bootcamp 2021 and supported by a diverse team from around the world, bloXmove continues to develop identification and settlement solutions as well as new protocol standards to improve the currently siloed operating systems of the sectors: Power and Mobility.
For more information, read our expert pieces on medium, join our Telegram community, or follow us on Twitter.
Media inquiries: Sophia Rödiger, sophia.roediger@bloxmove.com
About peaq
peaq is the Web3 network powering the Economy of Things (EoT) on Polkadot, the most environmentally-friendly blockchain network. peaq enables entrepreneurs and developers to build decentralized applications for vehicles, robots, and devices, while empowering users to govern and earn as connected machines provide goods and services. Together with leading consortia, including Gaia-X and MOBI, peaq is co-creating the standards that will power the future of mobility and other connected industries while working to democratize abundance in the Age of Automation.
For more information, visit peaq, join our Discord, or follow us on Twitter.
Media inquiries: Denis Khoronenko, khoronenko@peaq.io
