Cryptocurrencies have been used in almost every shape and form for almost every purpose one can think of – from rewarding loyal clients in Starbucks to tracking how diamonds are mined in Africa.
Now, the newest interesting project comes from the largest UK car manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover. On April 29th, the company announced that it is testing a new type of software that will enable drivers of its vehicles to earn the digital coin IOTA as a reward for sharing data.
The project involves the installation of “smart wallet” technology in each and every of its cars. This installation will allow car drivers with IOTA coin rewards to report useful data in an automatic way. Such type of data may include congestion, potholes, navigation provider info and other.
The way through which a driver can such IOTA rewards is by participating in a ride-sharing program. Each token can be used for parking, paying for tolls and even charging electric cars.
Through this program, Jaguar Land Rover aims to achieve “zero emissions, zero accidents, and zero congestion”, according to a news report from Money Control.
According to press, the company is currently testing the project at the company’s engineering site in Shannon, Ireland. Some of the Jaguar Land Rover vehicles have already been equipped with the technology, including Range Rover Velar and Jaguar F-PACE. However, there is no exact timeline by which the innovation will be ready for consumer “use”.
Lone Fønss Schrøder, CEO of Concordium and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Volvo Cars, commented on the news:
Many players in the automotive industry are already considering blockchain technology usage that goes way beyond swapping tokens for data, and which include enabling the registration of car ownership, service records, and mileage securely and immutably on public blockchains.
Another opportunity for the use of blockchain technology in the automotive industry is to use the same type of encryption schemes in various ways to enhance ownership control. If a token should be used in a blockchain system, it´s important for the user that it is helping bring costs down and users should not be at the mercy of potential outswings in the value of such a token.