Decidedly everywhere, the web3 could also profoundly modify the carpooling industry. The start-up DEC has just raised 9 million dollars to decentralize this sector. Some former Uber employees have also invested in the project. The new protocol should eventually work on the Solana blockchain.
Decentralize carpooling!
This is the stated objective of the software development company DEC. The start-up’s fundraising will have made it possible to live 9 million de dollars. The fundraising campaign, which was orchestrated by Foundation Capital and Road Capital, enabled major financial players to enter the dance. Among the investors, we find in particular 6 th Man Ventures or Common Metal.
Symbolically, the presence of Josh Mohrer, a former executive at Uber among the long list of investors, gives weight to this project. Other former employees of the American giant also participated in the round table like Ryan Mckillen. The former software engineer at Uber made no secret of his enthusiasm for the DEC project:
By turning ridesharing into a protocol, Teleport is building what we couldn’t build at Uber in 2010, and what Uber should be building today. Users and drivers will migrate from centralized intermediaries to an open economy with aligned economic incentives.
With this amount, DEC will be able to enter into new partnerships or promote the development of software or solutions for the community via one or more hackathons. Ultimately, DEC’s objective is to move towards total decentralization by dispersing the protocol in the hands of several independent entities.
A protocol that uses the Solana blockchain!
The DEC start-up is already developing Trip, which runs on the blockchain Solana. As its name suggests, Trip focuses on building applications based on mobility. For carpooling management, DEC intends to launch a dedicated application: Teleport. This should be launched in December.
Unlike Uber or other centralized players, Trip works according to an open-source model. It is up to the community to manage the proper functioning of the application. Users will thus be responsible for certain tasks such as the management of conflicts between users since these will be accessible to all members of the network. A model of which Paul Bohm, CEO of DEC and at the origin of Teleport, seems proud:
You can have multiple ridesharing operating companies and multiple customers connecting to that same network and working together to create that marketplace. […]. As opposed to Uber, which is a singular monopoly that no one can compete with and on which no one can build, innovate or change.
The CEO of DEC has planned to present Teleport in Lisbon during the Solana Breakpoint conference which will take place from November 4 to 7. Before going to demonstrate the usefulness of its application at Art Basel in Miami in early December.
Be as good as Uber to better compete with the giant!
If Bohm builds his protocol to respond to Uber’s shortcomings, he does not forget that the American technological giant offers a system that works. And that the key to success is therefore to do as well. For this, Bohm intends proposer a simple and effective user experience. An experience through which network users can easily use several means of payment such as a credit card and of course digital assets.
The CEO of DEC also intends to use his years of experience acquired on P2P networks. And on this axis, the pedigree of the businessman is as long as the arm. He notably founded a food delivery company in Austria which has since been acquired by Delivery Hero. Bohm also actively worked on the P2P folders of the Dropbox company. He even worked occasionally with Uber to perform simulations on vehicle needs to cover specific situations. It is perhaps from these works that the idea of Teleport was born. Recently, he highlighted his experience and his legitimacy to carry out such an enterprise:
I’ve worked on queuing algorithms in the past and bidding algorithms, so it was very clear to me that much better could be done, especially when demand is very high and low supply.
According to Bohm, it seems that Teleport can find its competitive advantage in very specific situations. Especially when carpooling supply is low and demand is high.
