Transitioning to The Sharing Economy with Blockchain and Apis

Advances in technology are now unlocking the marketplace for secure data, providing a vast, untapped store of opportunity for both companies and individuals. New business models based on blockchain will enable us to take advantage of the technological advances in transport.

Imagine the world 10 - 15 years from now. One of the biggest changes we are likely to see is a huge influx in the number of connected devices on which we will depend. The Internet of Things is set for a huge expansion and will touch every aspect of our lives. Within the next 5 Years, we are likely to see 30 billion connected devices, from traffic lights to banking ATMs, self-serve kiosks in coffee shops & supermarkets to sensors and robots on factory floors. Just as important as the electricity and gas that currently powers our world, will be the data that flows between these devices. Take for example, Computer vision and autonomous driving has only become achievable with large datasets, combining millions of miles of driving footage consisting of images collected from multiple camera angles, along with LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), GPS and INS (Inertial Navigation System).

It’s not just connected devices that will provide this data. People themselves and the information we voluntarily provide are a growing source of all kinds of fascinating information. For example, last year the US fast food chain reported a large slump in sales over a quarter. Ahead of the official results, Four Square was able to predict this fall with surprising accuracy. They derived their figures from the number of people checking in at the Fast food chain branches, or using their app with geo location switched on. This is just a tiny example of the power of data. When it comes to data sharing, the biggest challenge is a lack of trust. Most organizations believe that information is a valuable commodity, and is one worth hoarding: the more you have of it, the more you can learn from it, and make changes that will drive business success.

Several studies have estimated the economic value of open data at several tens of billions of Euros annually in the EU alone. Imagine electric vehicles which could negotiate directly with toll roads to agree smart pricing at different times of the day and directly pay the road providers to use these routes, selecting the one that is cheapest without the driver having to make a conscious decision. The vehicles could even sell their own data back to the toll road companies to report back on traffic volume, weather conditions and other such information. Of course, it is no use having large amounts of raw data if you cannot trust the source or put it to use in any meaningful way.