Decentralized Autonomous Vehicles Foundation Secures Major Investment from Block Crafters Capital

author: Eric Walz   

The DAV Foundation, the Swiss-based blockchain startup building a decentralized network for autonomous vehicles, announced it has secured significant investment from South Korean-based Block Crafters Capital.

Block Crafters Capital consists of partners from various professional backgrounds who carefully select promising blockchain projects and provide comprehensive investment support. It was most recently associated with the ICON initial coin offering, which closed in September 2017 having raised $45 million.

The DAV Foundation's (short for Decentralized Autonomous Vehicles), main goal is to promote and support research and development of the DAV network, as well as develop a decentralized autonomous vehicle global standard. The organization is guided by the principles of transparency and openness, and invites the DAV community to help build a new way of transporting goods and people around the globe.

The DAV Foundation is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with representation offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, San Francisco, USA and Vancouver, Canada.

DAV allows autonomous vehicles to discover each other, as well as service providers, and clients around them. DAV implements decentralized node discovery using a peer-to-peer protocol that does not rely on a central server.

Instead, nodes are listed in a distributed hash table which can be accessed in an extremely efficient way. For example, drivers and ride-hailing passengers might someday communicate directly with each other using Blockchain, with no middleman to share the revenue with.

In addition, participants can earn DAV Tokens by providing transportation services. An example—a self-driving car give rides to passengers when its not being used. Or a person can utilize their personal drone to help with deliveries around town.

Joony Koo, a partner at Block Crafters Capital, said, "We believe that the DAV Foundation has a clear vision about how blockchain tech can be a backbone to all vehicles in the future. Adding DAV to our portfolio shows our capabilities for introducing foreign-born blockchain projects to the market. We believe that all blockchain and coin economies need a global perspective."

South Korea is becoming a major hub for autonomous vehicle development. Last year K-City, an 88-acre facility for testing autonomous vehicles was opened. K-City includes expressways, suburban roads, bus lanes, and parking areas is the largest test environment in the world and Korea's Hyundai-Kai Group has a publicly stated its goal of commercializing driverless vehicles as early as 2020.

Koo continued, "Autonomous vehicle technology is a major field of investment in South Korea. It attracts significant support from the government as well as the global vehicle manufacturers which are headquartered in Korea. DAV's technology has the promise to be a key part of the revolution in transport and logistics."

The role of blockchain in the evolution of autonomous car development is a good fit, with the vehicles themselves representing the most public example of a decentralized network of devices. Combining this with a decentralized platform to capture data and transactions makes for a totally self-governing environment.

Noam Copel, CEO and founder of the DAV Foundation, said: "For us, South Korea is an extremely valuable market. Its automotive industry is at the cutting edge of autonomous vehicle technology with multiple proof of concept programs in progress. On top of this, the country has embraced blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Therefore to have the support from a major cryptocurrency fund in South Korea is extremely exciting ahead of our public token sale.

"This substantial investment is an important step in our funding round that will enable us to realize our goal of creating a blockchain-based transportation platform. I look forward to working with our investors in the coming months as we bring the DAV network to the world."

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.