Although the automobile is currently undergoing a paradigm shift with technological transformations of self-driving cars and electric vehicles, a huge void still exists in terms of operational accountability and efficiency in customer services. The Vehicle Lifecycle Industry which comprises of several sectors like auto repair, car insurance, aftermarket spare parts, vehicle sales, etc, looks to be quite segregated at this moment. The Vehicle Lifecycle Industry is huge, with a market size of $1.8 trillion.
CarFix, a comprehensive online-to-affine auto repair platform, is currently working on a project called the Vehicle Lifecycle Blockchain and aims to bring a transformational change by optimizing operations and costs, and thereby interconnecting all the isolated sectors using the much revolutionary Distributed Ledger Technology.
A blockchain-based solution will help to bring more accountability and transparency in maintaining records of the vehicle’s lifecycle thereby considerably reducing costs and enhancing more trust within all sectors of the Vehicle Lifecycle Industry.
The Vehicle Lifecycle Blockchain will help in achieving more accurate and cost-effective
insurance claim management, optimizing insurance policy costs, ascertaining the authenticity of spare parts, maximizing resale of the vehicles, and enforcing real-life and transparent contractual relations through the means of smart contracts.
Benefits of VLB to Different Sectors
- Car Manufacturers: The blockchain-based solution will help car manufacturers to track every part in the vehicle sold within the ecosystem. This helps car manufacturers to quickly identify any unauthorized and counterfeit spare parts and thus a huge amount of money in case of car recalls. VLB also helps the manufacturer to verify all the maintenance records and reduce unnecessary maintenance costs.Through the means of VLB tokens, manufacturers can also improve customer loyalty and brand reputation through loyalty-based microtransactions and reward programs.
- Car Dealers: VLB will maintain all the ownership records during the vehicle’s entire lifecycle. Car dealers will considerably benefit out of VLB as it will help to streamline and optimize the most cumbersome process of transferring ownership to new buyers.VLB can also help to keep a tap on repair and maintenance records as well as purchase records. For well-maintained cards, this will result in cost reduction for the end purchaser and also benefit the dealer to get a better price with good margins.
- Insurers: VLB will help in eliminating the extensive paperwork required for claim management thereby improving efficiency. VLB will also help to streamline subsequent payout and service contracts while making fraud virtually impossible.It also helps insurers to formulate an accurate, customer-oriented policy pricing.
- Producers and Distributors of Spare Parts: VLB will maintain all the records of authorized spare parts given by producers and distributors thereby helping to quickly trace non-original ones. This brings transparency in monitoring and honouring warranties and also helps to optimize the stock management process.
- Car Owner / Fleet Owner/ Car Lender/ Ridesharing/ Service Provider: VLB brings additional benefits to this sector like bringing trust and confidence in the used-car market thereby maximizing the resale value of the vehicle.It will ultimately help the end-consumer by reducing the cost for individuals and businesses in the process of ridesharing.
VLB ICO Token Sale and Understanding the Use of Tokens
The VLB project is currently having a public sale of VLB tokens that will continue till April 8, 2018. The VLB tokens are ERC20 tokens based on Ethereum blockchain. The total number of VLB tokens is 175 million and the hard cap is kept at $12 million. The VLB tokens can be purchased in exchange for Ether tokens where 1 ETH = 650 VLB tokens.
The working of Vehicle Lifecycle Blockchain is quite similar to the Ethereum blockchain. Data Owners will use smart part of VLB tokens to record and broadcast information on the blockchain. Here the VLB “Fuel” is just similar to Ethereum gas. Data consumers will be majorly individuals and businesses will pay the owners to access data. The payments will be done in VLB tokens itself and more accurate data will fetch higher payment thereby eliminating the possibility of any fraudulent data.
The price fluctuation of the VLB tokens will be determined based on market demand and consumption.
VLB Partner and Team
The VLB project has received backing and support from several partners like Uber Sberbank Insurance, QIWI technologies and others.
The founding member team comprises of three people: Oskar Hartman, Vladimir Lupenko and Paul Nazarov. The other members of its core team include professionals from the blockchain and automotive industry.
On its list of advisors are great dignitaries from prestigious institutions like Sberbank Insurance, IBM Blockchain Labs, Magnusson, QIWI Technologies, etc.
More details about VLB can be obtained through its official whitepaper.
