The blockchain-based platform wants a piece of the ride-hailing pie in Vietnam following Uber's retreat from Southeast Asia's market.
MVL (Mass Vehicle Ledger) Foundation – a Singaporean blockchain-based mobility ecosystem – just announced that they will launch a new ride-hailing app in Vietnam in a media release sent to Saigoneer. The app's main appeal is that it offers a zero percent commission fee for all rides for drivers, while only charging a "negligible transaction fee" for the platform's maintenance.
Users are not required to pay any additional fees for using the platform, except for a small sum if one chooses to pay their ride via online transaction. Drivers with positive ratings will be rewarded with bonus points, which can only be converted into MVL tokens, a type of cryptocurrency owned by the company that can be traded within the ecosystem.
"The recent consolidation of the two major ride-hailing players and the rapid advancement of the distributed ledger technology makes it possible for us to offer our platform to create a transparent and accountable mobility ecosystem that rewards all participants," said MVL CEO Kay Woo in the same press release.
MVLchain's zero commission and fair pricing policy is made possible by the company's mobility data-ecosystem that uses blockchain as its technological backbone. Specifically, the platform uses a blockchain-based centralized ecosystem instead of a conventional server to store all of its vehicles' data gathered from all parties that use the service.
The data can be publicly accessed by anyone. Personal data will be stored on an external, distributed storage ledger, which is private. MVL won't be making profits from the ride-hailing services. Instead, the company's main sources of income are from partnering its mobility system with other services, the transaction flow of its token, and selling data to corporate and market research companies.
Some skeptics have noted that the MVLchain's promises seem too good to be true and that it's necessary to address potential security concerns and the feasibility of incorporating cryptocurrency and blockchain into mobility as well. While the rhetoric surrounding blockchain sounds radical – a decentralized and transparent database that operates outside of institutions – unregulated market flows armed with technological affordances could be a problem in and of itself.
MVL will be registered under the legal basis of a tech company. The company's representative in Vietnam, Hoang Song Bien, seems to be confident that the platform will not face legal problems like Grab and Uber did, saying "We don't make profits from our ride-hailing service, therefore, we don't need to pay tax for this category in Vietnam." The first driver recruitment is expected to be conducted within this month. If everything goes smoothly, the application can launch this July.
[Photo via Bitcoin]
