We are excited to contribute to the development of a decentralized internet of mobility. FOAM will support the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) through the development of geospatial blockchain protocols and standards for location encoding, map UI, and proof of location. We are eager to play a part in the next step of mobility.

— Ryan King, CEO / Cofounder, Foam

MOBI, the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, announces its formation to explore blockchain for use in a new digital mobility ecosystem that could make transportation safer, more affordable, and more widely accessible. MOBI is actively working with companies accounting for over 70% of global vehicle production in terms of market share. MOBI and partners, including, BMW, Bosch, Ford, General Motors, Renault, ZF, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Services USA and others seek to foster an ecosystem where businesses and consumers have security and sovereignty over their driving data, manage ride-share and carshare transactions, and store vehicle identity and usage information.

MOBI is actively working with companies accounting for over 70% of global vehicle production in terms of market share.

We believe blockchain will transform the way people and businesses interact, creating new opportunities in mobility. We look forward to working together with our industry colleagues as part of MOBI to set the standards for the mobility ecosystem of tomorrow.

— Rich Strader, Vice President, Mobility Product Solutions, Ford Motor Corporation

Blockchain technology operates by distributing information to a network of independent computers, ensuring that transactions are secure and data privacy, ownership rights, and integrity are protected. Working in a consortium allows MOBI and partners to create transparency and trust among users, reduce risk of fraud, and reduce frictions and transaction costs in mobility, such as fees or surcharges applied by third-parties.

Chris Ballinger, former Chief Financial Officer and Director of Mobility Services at Toyota Research Institute, is joining MOBI as Chairman and CEO to coordinate this initiative and create a more open platform where users, owners, mobility service companies, and infrastructure providers can better control and monetize their assets, including their data.

“Blockchain and related trust enhancing technologies are poised to redefine the automotive industry and how consumers purchase, insure and use vehicles,” said Ballinger. “By bringing together automakers, suppliers, startups, and government agencies, we can accelerate adoption for the benefit of businesses, consumers and communities.”

MOBI is pleased to connect global mobility providers with blockchain innovators as well as government and non-government agencies, and institutions to collaborate on the development of blockchain-enabled vehicle data and mobility services applications.

Through an open-source approach to blockchain software tools and standards, the MOBI consortium hopes to stimulate more rapid and scalable adoption of the technology by other companies developing autonomous vehicle and mobility services. MOBI is pleased to connect global mobility providers with blockchain innovators as well as government and non-government agencies, and institutions to collaborate on the development of blockchain-enabled vehicle data and mobility services applications

At ConsenSys, we are dedicated to building the Ethereum ecosystem and are committed to supporting new use cases across all industries. As one of our first ventures into the automotive industry, we’re excited to support MOBI’s exploration and development of blockchain solutions that will enable all parties in the automotive supply chain to benefit from digitization and the seamless exchange of data and immutability of their records.

— Joseph Lubin, Founder of ConsenSys & Co-Founder of Ethereum

MOBI’s approach to ecosystem development is open and inclusive, inviting stakeholders from across the entire mobility value chain to establish a “minimum viable network”. This includes automakers, public transportation and toll road providers, other forms of transportation, technology firms, blockchain firms, academic institutions, startup innovators, and regulatory bodies across the globe.

Joining Chris Ballinger as co-founders and members of the initial Board of Directors are Ashley Lannquist from Blockchain at Berkeley and David Luce, a veteran technology leader. Dan Harple, CEO of Context Labs, Joseph Lubin, Co-Founder of Ethereum and Founder of ConsenSys, Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger, Jamie Burke, CEO of Outlier Ventures, and Zaki Manian, Executive Director of the Trusted IoT Alliance, join MOBI’s Board of Advisors.

Initially, MOBI will be working with its partners on projects related to:

Vehicle identity, history and data tracking

Supply chain tracking, transparency, and efficiency

Autonomous machine and vehicle payments

Secure mobility ecosystem commerce

Data markets for autonomous and human driving

Car sharing and ride hailing

Usage-based mobility pricing and payments for vehicles, insurance, energy, congestion, pollution, infrastructure, etc.

MOBI and its partners announced their collaboration today at the Future Blockchain Summit.

MOBI’s partners announcing today include: Accenture, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Services USA, Beyond Protocol Inc, BigchainDB, Blockchain at Berkeley, BMW, Bosch, Chronicled, ConsenSys Systems, Context Labs, Crypto Valley Association, Dashride, Deon Digital AG, Digital Twin Labs, DOVU, Fetch.ai, FOAM, Ford, General Motors, Hyperledger, IBM, the IOTA Foundation, Luxoft, MotionWerk, NuCypher, Oaken Innovations, Ocean Protocol, Outlier Ventures, Renault, Ride Austin, Shareing, Shift, Spherical Analytics, the Trusted IoT Alliance, VeChain, Xain, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

Blockchain technology is by essence decentralized, and its full potential needs to be assessed by working in an open ecosystem. That is why, it is natural for Groupe Renault to take part of the MOBI consortium. This consortium will be a great opportunity to share and learn about the possibilities that can be opened by the Distributed Ledger Technology, applied to the automotive ecosystem. Ultimately, we aim to work together to define future standards and use-cases that will make an easier everyday life for our customers.

— Sophie Schmidtlin, Global Director

MOBI is a newly created nonprofit foundation formed to accelerate adoption and to promote standards in blockchain, distributed ledgers, and related technologies for the benefit of the mobility industry, consumers, and communities. MOBI and our partners are creating simple, standard and digital ways of identifying cars, people, and trips, of paying for mobility services, and securely exchanging and monetizing data in ways that preserve property rights and privacy.

We are convinced that by working together we can make mobility services more efficient, affordable, greener, safer and less congested.

MOBI is working with most of the world’s large automakers and many mobility ecosystem players, along with many start-ups, non-profits, governments, transit agencies, and technology companies. We are convinced that by working together we can make mobility services more efficient, affordable, greener, safer and less congested.

MOBI is an open, inclusive body that acts as a ‘trusted convener’ and partner to entities in the emerging ecosystem of pay for use, on demand, connected, and increasingly autonomous mobility services. MOBI itself is technology and ledger agnostic.