May 26th, 2017

New York, NY

Hi Everyone, John Gerryts here! Just wanted to bring you up to speed and provide some detail on what we’ve been working on over at Oaken.

Project Oaken, now ‘Oaken Innovations, Inc.’ has teamed up with Toyota Research Institute (TRI), Toyota Insurance Management Solutions (TIMS), MIT Media Labs, and other blockchain and distributed technology startups, GEM, BigChainDB and Commuterz (formerly La’Zooz) to produce an open mobility initiative with a collection of open source technologies, in order to accelerate the autonomous driving future, and the larger support infrastructure that will need to be built to support this future.

This initiative was launched to build the foundation for a collective of automobile and technology companies to participate in open discussion and contribute code to realize a common infrastructure. Moving forward we would like to attract other leading technology and auto manufacturers to join us and contribute to a truly open mobility ecosystem.

Oaken Innovations’ Acorn hardware solution, coupled with a suite of smart contracts running on the ethereum blockchain, will allow the acceleration of autonomous driving technology, peer to peer ride and car sharing, as well as the integral infrastructure and services needed to support them.

Check out our video which details our contribution, so far, to the project below, as well as some of the press articles about the release. If you are interested in joining or are already working in the automotive technology space, please join us at https://blockchain-mobility.org. More announcements will be made soon for that initiative as we onboard more members, and as always, stay tuned to Oaken Innovations. Yes, we’re really building that.

— John Gerryts, CEO | Oaken Innovations, Inc.

Press:

Coindesk- http://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-move-self-driving-cars-fast-lane/

TechCrunch- https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/22/toyota-pushes-into-blockchain-tech-to-enable-the-next-generation-of-cars/

Reuters- http://www.reuters.com/article/toyota-selfdriving-blockchain-idUSL1N1IO178

TheStreet- https://www.thestreet.com/story/14145643/1/toyota-to-explore-blockchain-for-self-driving-cars.html

PCMag- http://www.pcmag.com/news/353811/toyota-wants-to-store-driving-data-in-blockchain

CoinDesk- http://www.coindesk.com/ha-moment-toyota-talks-vision-blockchain-change-driving/

CNET- https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/toyota-blockchain-bitcoin-tech-sharing-self-driving-car-data/

Seeking Alpha- https://seekingalpha.com/news/3269185-toyota-pushes-blockchain-tech

Futurism- https://futurism.com/toyota-is-using-blockchain-to-get-its-self-driving-cars-on-the-roads-sooner/

TorqueNews- https://www.torquenews.com/1083/toyota-teams-mit-media-lab-mobility-ecosystem

Canadian Underwriter- http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/insurance/toyota-research-institute-exploring-blockchain-possible-use-autonomous-driving-technology-1004113934/

EconoTimes- http://www.econotimes.com/Toyota-MIT-Media-lab-partner-to-explore-blockchain-for-driverless-cars-717206

About Oaken Innovations:

Oaken Innovations is an early stage blockchain startup, that has created an Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain platform to secure, decentralize, and automate value transfer on IoT devices. Oaken Innovation’s platform makes individual ‘ACORNs’ (IoT Machines with Autonomous Communication Over Redundant Nodes), for each physical IoT application within the real world. Through our blockchain platform, secure IoT devices can be monitored and controlled. Our secure hardware environment utilizes secure elements in each acorn to protect against external threats. Our Software platform utilizes Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible blockchains for smart contract automation and value transfer. Acorns each have a special purpose, but can be easily scaled and replicated for multiple applications. Oaken Innovations is concentrating on key verticals in the IoT market with the autonomous automotive as one of them. Oaken Innovations was incorporated by the Project Oaken team that won 1st place the 2017 United Arab Emirates Virtual Blockchain Govhack Hackathon(as part of the 2017 GovTechioneers Race) with our blockchain enabled Tesla and Tollbooth solution, and also won 1st place (Judge’s voting) in the 2016 hack.ether.camp hackathon with our blockchain enabled water meter entry.