Edit: the project has gone live and more information will be available shortly once the Partner PR embargo is lifted.

We are pleased to announce that Blockcharge, now dubbed “Share&Charge” is going into live beta in Germany today.

Share&Charge (https://shareandcharge.com/) was announced in March this year and is build by Slock.it in partnership with innogy Innovation Hub.

Summary

During its Beta test, Share&Charge enables users to easily share their private Electric Vehicle charging stations. Ultimately, we aim to extend this concept to bring value to operators of mobility services, to easily share or rent their mobility assets, including energy, parking spots, and eventually even the vehicles themselves.

The Share&Charge App is available both on the Desktop and Mobile Devices

The user experience consist of mobile geolocation app to identify and navigate to a given service, in this case a charging pole. Once at the pole (provided in a peer to peer fashion by another Share&Charge user), the consumer swipe their cellphone and makes use of the charging service, paying only for what they use. The operator of the pole is rewarded in tokens valued at EUR 1 they can then use to consume other services on the platform, including gaining access to 3rd party offers, or redeeming the tokens for cash.

How does it work?

Share&Charge leverages the blockchain, and has chosen Ethereum in particular because of its support for smart contracts. On this chain we create a token, to which we assign a mobility value denominated in EUR, (not dissimilar to a gift card). Users can purchase these tokens or earn tokens by providing services.

The tariff calculator makes it easy for charging station owners to find out how quick they can recoup their investment.

This creates a decentralized marketplace that couldn’t exist as part of a traditional model: third party services from partners synchronise around a shared state, without having to ask permission or make use of cumbersome APIs.

Why it’s revolutionary

Our mobile application enables anyone to benefit from a platform secured by proven cryptographic principles without knowing the technical details behind it, making it as easy to use as any other mobile application.

A Share&Charge charging station prototype demonstrated at CEBIT 2016

To this decentralized marketplace we aim to one day add the services of autonomous machines, for example cars pre-authorized to pay for the energy they need, without any human intervention.

Share&Charge in effect inherits from the blockchain core characteristics: namely immutability, refutability, and automation, all three of which leading to cost reduction and the creation of never seen before peer to peer services.

German readers can sign up for the Share&Charge Beta at https://shareandcharge.com. You can also follow the project on Facebook , LinkedIn and Xing.