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MOBI Announces Citopia, the Second Phase of the MOBI Grand Challenge, with Judges Panel from the Government of Singapore, United Nations, EU, and Architects of the Smart Cities Challenge (USA) Among OthersLOS ANGELES, May 23, 2019 /CNW/ -- The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI), a nonprofit consortium that counts the majority of the world's large automakers as members, including BMW, Groupe Renault, GM, Honda, and Ford, as well as The World Economic Forum, The Ministry of Transport for the Republic of China, Denso, IBM, and Accenture - kicked off a smart cities initiative - "Citopia", the second phase of the three-year MOBI Grand Challenge (MGC) tournament. With more than $1 million worth of prizes expected over three-years, the MGC invites developers around the world to explore blockchain solutions for smart city applications to improve urban environments. Citopia, launched today at the MOBI Colloquium hosted by the Fifth Smart Cities India Expo in New Delhi, India, focuses on tokenized incentives to improve human behavior and make our cities greener, smarter, safer, and improve our quality of life. The ultimate goal of the MGC is to create the first viable, decentralized, ad-hoc network of blockchain connected vehicles, IoT, and smart infrastructure that can reliably share data, participate in transactions, coordinate behavior, and thereby improve urban living. Phase One of the challenge began on October 12, 2018, at MOBI's Grand Challenge launch event in New Mexico, USA. 25 teams competing across four continents submitted entries. The winners were announced at BMW's Group IT Center in Munich, as the highlight at the first MOBI Colloquium in Europe. First and second prize-winners, Chorus Mobility and Oaken Innovations respectively, showed off entries highlighting coordinated vehicle behavior and usage based payment for infrastructure. Citopia, MGC Phase Two, uses tokenized incentives to reduce congestion, pollution, carbon footprint through usage-based payment for infrastructure and resources. Over 50% of the world's population lives in cities and more than 1 million people around the world migrate every week from rural areas to cities, causing huge burdens on the existing infrastructure, especially transport systems. Furthermore, countries with the highest rates of urbanization also report high rates of personal motorization, leading to more greenhouse gas emissions. Without the development of accessible and sustainable transportation systems, these trends will accelerate climate change.1 Citopia submissions will promote the creation of greener and smarter cities through congestion pricing, carbon footprint management, parking, usage-based payments for infrastructure, multi-model transit, data exchange and micro-payments. "Innovators made incredible strides in the first phase of the MGC. In the next phase, we imagine a community being called to the task, supported by targeted incentives, including all key stakeholders and constituencies of citywide programs seeking to drive positive behavioral change in urban ecosystems," said Tram Vo, MOBI's Chief Creative Officer. The second phase of the MGC showcases global judges who play mission-critical roles across public and private sectors and municipalities, including the city of Seattle, Los Angeles, Singapore, and EU representatives as well as architects from the US Department of Transportation's 2015 Smart Cities Challenge. "I'm privileged to be on the judging panel of Citopia, because I believe that a better tomorrow includes fresh eyes looking at and identifying innovative solutions derived from blockchain technology. There is no more ideal opportunity to marry my interest in smart cities and green and sustainable transportation," said Mark Dowd CEO of Smart Cities Labs. The following organizations have contributed to the MGC second phase prize pool: Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments. BitGreen, is a sustainable cryptocurrency modeled after Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision for Bitcoin. It is a decentralized, peer-to-peer transactional currency designed to offer a solution to the problematic exponential increase in energy consumed by other proof-of-work currencies. Ocean Protocol, a blockchain enabled data exchange protocol to enable the data sharing needed for developers, data and AI specialists to offer the world an autonomous and efficient mobility solution. R3 is an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem across multiple industries to develop on Corda, its open-source blockchain platform, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version for enterprise usage. Additional prizes to be announced throughout the course of the challenge. About the MOBI Grand Challenge (MGC) The MOBI Grand Challenge is loosely modeled on the DARPA grand challenge for autonomous driving. In 2004, the DARPA challenge captured the public imagination and launched the autonomous driving revolution. However, unlike the DARPA challenge, the MOBI Grand Challenge focuses on improving the capabilities of autonomous cars by sharing data and coordinating movement using blockchains. This is the second challenge of a three-year project. The goal of the MGC is to create the first viable, decentralized, ad-hoc network of blockchain connected vehicles, IoT and smart infrastructure that can reliably share data, participate in transactions, coordinate behavior, and thereby improve urban living. Submissions will be judged on the following categories: Creativity, Technical Merit, Potential Impact, and Feasibility. The panel of judges for the second phase include:
MOBI is a nonprofit foundation formed to accelerate adoption of and to promote standards in blockchain, distributed ledgers, and related technologies for the benefit of the smart cities and mobility industries, consumers, and communities. MOBI and our partners are creating simple, standard, and digital ways of identifying cars, people, and trips, of paying for mobility services, and securely exchanging and monetizing data in ways that preserve property rights and privacy. MOBI is working with most of the world's large automakers, smart city initiatives, and many mobility ecosystem players, along with many start-ups, non-profits, governments, transit agencies, and technology companies. We are convinced that by working together we can make mobility services more efficient, affordable, greener, safer and less congested. MOBI is an open, inclusive body that acts as a 'trusted convener' and partner to entities in the emerging ecosystem of pay for use, on demand, connected, and increasingly autonomous mobility services. MOBI itself is technology and ledger agnostic. For more information or to register for the MGC Phase II - Citopia, visit www.dlt.mobi. 1 Tsay, S., & Herrmann, V. (2013). Rethinking Urban Mobility: Sustainable Policies for the Century of the City (68 p). Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. For all media inquiries contact SOURCE MOBI |