Car broken down? The Ethereum blockchain can fix it

The result will be Vehicle Lifecycle Blockchain that will usher many vehicle lifecycle industry players such as vehicle manufacturers, dealers, repair shops, insurance companies, spare parts distributors and others into a new era. Proceeds from the ICO will be used to develop and implement a blockchain platform for the vehicle lifecycle industry to bring transparency and immutability to everything that happens to a car from the moment it comes off the factory floor and to the moment it is recycled in the junkyard.

Imagine a world where a regular maintenance job is purged of oppressive bureaucracy and dishonesty amongst repair shop owners, a common disconnect caused by limited knowledge of the average consumer about his car. The car repair industry is typically riddled with faulty and unnecessary costs. When customers use the VLB token for auto repairs all these fees are avoided, because CarFix has created a transactional software platform and an ecosystem of repair shops, spare parts suppliers and dealers where any repair job is priced via a transparent algorithm instantaneously and can be booked much the same way you book hotel rooms.

After only 18 months since its launch, CarFix has brought a significant degree of order and transparency into the vehicle lifecycle industry, an industry closely associated with fraud and incoherency. By implementing a software that establishes fixed prices for all vehicle repairs, the CarFix ecosystem currently encompasses over 500 repair shops, ten of the largest spare parts distributors, major dealerships, and over 250,000 users of which 50,000 are regular paying customers. This ecosystem is continuously growing, and will be further empowered by the Blockchain’s core premises of decentralisation and immutability of records. In essence, the VLB token is bringing trust to a once thought 'trustless' industry.

CarFix’s Ethereum based platform provides many benefits to users including enforcing warranties, maximising the resale value of vehicles, ascertaining the authenticity of spare parts, and achieving more accurate and cost-effective insurance claim management. Users are given fixed prices for regular maintenance, through the following steps:

1. The client provides his/her car model, VIN number or license plate number, contact information and desired time and location.
2. VLB takes this data and instantly offers the client the three best repairs shops in his/her selected location.
3. The VLB software then selects the required spare parts based on statistical data and manufacturer recommendation.
4. After determining the required labour hours, VLB determines the prices and arranges all relevant appointment scheduling and deliveries.
5. The customer gets his/her car repaired or, first, objectively diagnosed and then repaired with full transparency.

CarFix's team of advisors includes Sergey Solonin, founder and CEO of QIWI; Alexey Arkhipov, CTO of QIWI Blockchain Technologies and the developer behind MasterChain, the first blockchain solution implemented in the Russian banking sector; and Hannes Chopra, former Senior Vice President of Allianz Insurance Company.

“We are thrilled to officially announce the ICO of VLB Tokens,” said Oskar Hartmann, Co-founder and President of VLB, “VLB streamlines one of the most antiquated industries in the world when it comes to customer services and transparency. We aim to develop the Vehicle Lifecycle Blockchain, deploy it, first, within the expanded VLB ecosystem; and, second, beyond VLB in a decentralised manner with a distributed network of proof-of-stake nodes. We strongly believe that our blockchain technology can tap into the $1.8 trillion vehicle lifecycle industry to provide consumers with a positive value accretive experience and create significant business and cost saving opportunities for industry players.”