The Internet of Mobility Protocol-The time has finally arrived!
As I was writing my 3rd book, Post-Capitalist Entrepreneurship, I became fascinated by the potential of decentralized ledger technologies (i.e. DLT/blockchain) and how they could transform entrepreneurship and the economy in ways that better distribute wealth to value creators instead of extractors of values, sometimes referred to as “platform deathstars”.
In 2018, Josep Sanjuas, Victor Lopez and I incorporated Iomob with the intention of creating a decentralized protocol for the internet of mobility (IoM). Internet of Things (IoT) is about connecting devices and things in cities to a layer of the internet that allows big data, AI and other enablers to make sense of and integrate disparate information to improve decision making and quality of life.
Iomob aims to create a decentralized protocol which allows any vehicle (public, private or shared) to be discovered on a map, combined in a multimodal journey, booked or unlocked and paid for by any user of any interface connected to the IoM. The IoM vision is driven, in part, by the extent to which software has been “eating mobility” over the past decade, resulting in market disruption and explosion of new digitally native, shared mobility services.
From 2018 to 2021, Iomob focused on building the core technology to enable this, as well as learning from and engaging with the global transportation and mobility ecosystem. In the past year we were able to move from trials and pilots to commercial agreements to deploy Iomob at scale with clients like Brightline Trains (awesome private rail operator in the US) and London North Eastern Railway (LNER, in the UK). We also managed to create relationships with major mobility service providers (MSPs) like Tier, Voi and Via among many others. We remained committing to decentralization when we felt the market, our tech and blockchain in general and the ecosystem were ready for it.
In the coming months, we will start to share more about our plans to initiate progressive decentralization in ways very similar to our original vision. Only recently I rediscovered our first explainer video for Iomob from a few years ago and realized it was surprisingly accurate to our refined vision nearly 3 years later! For those of you who have been involved in startups you will know this is a rarity for a startup so many years later to be growing in ways so aligned with the original vision.
I can’t wait to share more in the coming months. Stay tuned! To learn more and stay connected, please check out the protocol website @ internetofmobility.org
