Blockchain helps determine ‘green’ parking price in Munich

Artificial intelligence specialists Fetch.ai, and blockchain solutions provider Datarella have announced the launch of a “Smart City” infrastructure trial in Munich, Germany, on Nov. 12.

The trial will be centered around the Connex Buildings business center in the city and will use a multi-agent blockchain-based AI platform to optimize parking space management at the building. This is designed to encourage reduced car use, and hence CO2 emissions.

Autonomous economic agents will negotiate the “price” of parking spaces between the operators and users. Users will be rewarded for choosing less-popular parking spaces or not using the parking lot at all.

Rewards will come in the form of an airdrop of FET token to registered car-park users for every minute that their vehicle is not in the parking lot. The number of tokens awarded per minute will depend on the amount of available space in the car park.

While this is merely a small scale trial, if the concept can be shown to effectively “nudge” people towards more sustainable actions, then the implications could be great.

For example, if the scheme can bring down car usage by 10% then it could see a reduction in CO2 emissions of 34,000 tons per year if scaled up across the whole city.

Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh told Cointelegraph that this is just the first of several field trials it will run in a number of industry verticals, particularly in the hospitality and mobility sectors:

“Essentially, our core thesis is that multi-agent systems running on a decentralized network, enable coordination of complex tasks between multiple stakeholders in a way that has not previously been possible.”

As Cointelegraph reported, Fetch.ai recently launched a decentralized derivatives exchange, allowing users to gain exposure to both cryptocurrencies and commodities such as gold, silver and oil.