Ocean Protocol update- (MoCo Berlin), Europe has a plan to challenge the US and Chinese cloud dominance and more HSV GTS Follow Feb 18 · 5 min read

MoCoBerlin- The new Economy of Movement

MoCoBerlin was held on February 18th and was a half day of discussions, working group updates and MOBI’s vision for the New Economy of Movement.

MOBI Colloquiums explore the convergence of AI, IoT, Blockchain, Mobility and Smart Cities to build the minimum viable ecosystem for human mobility by fostering creative and professional growth alike.

Our colloquiums are the premier destinations for discovery. We provide opportunities for global professionals at every level to participate, learn and network.

Featuring a variety of topics that allow attendees to explore what’s next in the worlds of mobility and blockchain technology and how they intersect with smart city initiatives.

MOBI Colloquiums prove that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together.

Some of the high profile and impressive attendees at MOBI included the following, Chris Ballinger, Founder and CEO of MOBI, Thomas Heilmann, Member of German Parliament, Andreas Hartl, Head of Division Strategy Artificial Intelligence, Data Economy, Blockchain, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Lukas Repa, Senior Policy Officer, European Commission, Marcus Olszok, Head, CarTRUST, Vincent Schlatt, Research Associate, Fraunhofer, Dr. Harry Behrens, Head, Daimler Mobility Blockchain Factory, Nina-Luisa Siedler, Partner at DWF and Board Member of INATBA, Peter Busch, Product Owner DLT Mobility, Bosch, Anthony Day, Blockchain Partner, IBM, David Noack, Blockchain Specialist Automotive Security, Continental, Anne Smith, Head of Mobility & Automotive, IOTA, Alexander Hoeptner, CEO, Stuttgart Stock Exchange and Christian Koebel, Cyber Security Engineer, Honda R&D Europe.

Europe has a plan to break Google and Amazon’s cloud dominance and Ocean Protocol will play a vital role

This Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) market of which Amazon makes up 48 per cent is worth $42.8 billion (£32.7 billion). It’s dominated by five companies, four American (IBM, Microsoft, Google, Amazon) and one Chinese (Alibaba). Their data centres provide the huge humming heat-spewing engines of the internet, and host everything from small startups to big hitters such as Netflix, Spotify and AirBnb.

Now Europe has a plan to challenge this US and Chinese cloud dominance, it’s called Gaia-X.

The project is a collaboration between the European Commission, Germany, France and according to an email from a spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy “some 100 companies and organisations”. (Firms confirmed include SAP SE, Deutsche Telekom AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Siemens and Bosch.) The first proofs of concept for the European cloud are set to be ready towards the end of this year.

The project centres on users ranging from industrial groups to SMEs and startups seeking to meet their actual needs and provide added benefit for them. There is already a great number of potential use-case examples from various sectors and industries which include healthcare, finance, public administration, science and academia.

The driving motivation behind the project is “data sovereignty”, or more accurately “data governance”, an ambition to bring the flow and storage of data under greater European control.

Data sovereignty is the key to GAIA-X,” says Harald Summa, the CEO of DE-CIX Group AG, a group involved in the project, especially given that our society is relying more and more heavily on digital services, it is in the interest of a state or a region to enable a certain level of independence from external service providers.

In a recent Ocean Protocol AMA in December 2019 Trent was asked the following question, What’s the team’s opinion on Gaia-X, the European Cloud Data initiative driven by the German government?.

Trent replied with the following, we think that Gaia-X is a great initiative. It’s our pleasure to be part of that conversation . It’s wonderful to see the desire for better data governance from the highest levels.

. It’s wonderful to see the desire for better data governance from the highest levels. Germany has a long history of leadership in data privacy and this is the next step. Ocean can be used to stitch together existing cloud providers across Europe while preserving privacy & control. In doing so, it helps avoid lock-in by any one vendor.

This is not only strategically important for Europe but will help avoid balkanization of the Internet itself.

We also find ourselves in conversations with other cities and nations on leveraging Ocean for data management. It’s a great fit. Cities already live & breathe data, but in a siloed fashion.

on leveraging Ocean for data management. It’s a great fit. Cities already live & breathe data, but in a siloed fashion. Ocean can stitch together the siloes so that the cities can be run more efficiently and giving optionality for wholly new services. For example traffic density information, traffic lights, garbage disposal, snow removal, and emergency vehicles.

See some interesting tweets from Bruce Pon at the MoCoBerlin event(Founder & Board Member, Ocean Protocol).

Some interesting comments from Bruce

Tesla’s achilles heel is that they don’t collaborate well with others. This is the window for legacy automakers to compete.

We are at the cusp of another Cambrian explosion in business models with identity, data, AI and blockchain.

Ocean Protocols first involvement with MOBI

Toyota realised that to do autonomous driving they would need 500 billion miles of driving data onto roads which would have taken them 20 years to acquire.

Toyota reached out to Ocean Protocol to pool their data alongside GM, Ford, Daimler and others to compete against Waymo and win. Ocean built an autonomous vehicle data exchange and a prototype two years ago.

On the back of that Toyota realised that they couldn’t pursue this on their own so Chris Ballinger, who was running the project left Toyota to create a consortium called Mobi that now has over 100 organisations signed up to it including 80% of the world’s auto production.

What these organisations have realised is that not a single one of them can win the data game on their own but collectively they can create massive value by pooling their data in a way that reconcile privacy. That is a lesson insurance amongst other incumbents industries can take note off.

Ocean Protocol contribute $1 million to the MOBI grand challenge

Ocean Protocol is proud to support MOBI​ (Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative), a global consortium backed by forward-thinking vehicle manufacturers such as BMW, GM, Renault and Ford to use blockchain technology for safer, greener and more accessible mobility.

With a $1 million commitment over the next 3 years, Ocean Protocol is a cornerstone partner to help make data and services available to solve challenges to coordinate vehicles, identify obstacles and route autonomous cars.

Trent (Founder, Ocean Protocol) giving a speech on Data Marketplace

A separate Medium Article has been written on the partnership between Ocean Protocol and MOBI, please see link below.