Mass Vehicle Ledger, MVL ICO Review: The blockchain Uber? but that’s about it
Many promises but needs some more
Few days ago, a cryptocurrency called Mass Vehicle Ledger, more known as MVL(엠블), created a boom in the Korean market shortly after being listed on Cashierest, a Korean exchange popular among Pundi X investors in Korea.
Is another Pundi X coming?
The ICO Price for MVL was 1MVL=0.0024USD according to ICODROPS. Right after MVL got listed, price soared to about 7 KRW, which is about 0.0062USD. With this immediate 158% increase in the price, many Korean investors got crazy about this project. So far the Korean telegram group has about 2000 people. It seems to be following Pundi X’s trail, since Pundi X also had this kind of price boost and right now the group has about 4000 people in the Korean telegram group. Considering the official EOS Korean telegram group has about 5000 people, MVL has definitly experienced a rapid growth.
But of course, an increase in price does not necessarily mean that the project is a sound project. So ICO OF KOREA has decided to take a look.
What is MVL (aka Mass Vehicle Ledger) ICO?
MVL is an incentive based blockchain mobility system. Let’s have a look at its mission.
1. All vehicle-related services connected in one ecosystem
2. We value safe driving and good service
3. Vehicle data on the blockchain brings various benefit
To me MVL is an integrated vehicle service. Its ecosystem includes secondhand car companies, mechanic shops, rental cars, and pickup rides. Data from all these different industries related to vehicles are gathered and safely stored in the blockchain. The data altogether can be used to develop a deeper insight in used car dealers, mechanic’s abilities, driver’s habits, vehicle safety etc. Some examples of the data collected include driving data, fueling data, repair data, service data, insurance data etc.
This definitely is something many vehicle owners need. Many people who visit a mechanic, ride a taxi, or buy a secondhand car have to do lots of studying prior to them. Why? because normally people are not so familiar with the tech and business related to those areas, and in the end many people do end up getting ripped off. On the above you can see a Google search result of “Used Cars” in Korean, and surprisingly all the search results are related to “How not to get scammed when buying a used car” What is the number 1 reason people get scammed? It is because there is not enough information. Blockchain from its very start has been mentioned as the solution to these sort of problems. By using a public ledger that records all data, people can gather a more objective insight on the businesses that they are engaging in. So there definitely is a good value proposition right there: Gather all vehicle-related information such as used cars, taxis, rides, mechanics etc on the MVL ecosystem, and users use these information to their needs by using the MVL token.
MVL Point + MVL Coin
All these activities within the MVL ecosystem is rewarded through MVL points, just like Steemit’s Steem Power. There are lots of ways you can contribute to the ecosystem and earn MVL points. Some of these include
- Accurate Repair Recording
- Providing driving data
- Service Reviews
- Safe Driving
With an accumulation of MVL points you can convert them to MVL Tokens which can be used for
- Buying user data
- Paying for ads
- Mining rewards
- Sell through an exchange
What can we expect from MVL?
Right now MVL is starting a ride-hailing service in Singapore. Although GRAB is dominating the market, MVL says it wants more people to start using its ecosystem. The MVL ride-hailing service will have no commissions, and users + drivers will be rewarded by participating in the ecosystem.
What can we expect further from MVL? In 2018 Q3 it will focus on adding more features to its wallet. Also it will set the infrastructure for map + navigation services for drivers to use. We can expect its mainnet to be released in 2019 Q1, which is necessary to process the large amount of data as well as process that data at an acceptable rate. Note that in 2018 Q1 its goal was to provide rides for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. This is true because MVL is a reverse ICO of the startup EASI6 in South Korea. EASI6 actually has been selected as one of the innovative startups during the Winter Olympics.
Concerns about MVL
Personally I do not see an explanation of the pump in the price. MVL does have some interesting aspects but all it did so far is get listed on an exchange that is not well-known in Korea and outside as well. In fact, as I did my study I found more questions of the project.
- Scalability Issues? Consensus?
Yes, MVL gathers all the vehicle related data to its blockchain and makes them available for different uses. There is a lot of “will do”s but not a lot of “how”s. How can the MVL mainnet have enough scalability to have all that data as well as the transaction speed to process the information. Regarding data processing, where is the consensus part? So many new projects come up with their innovative “Proof-of-XXX” yet MVL has none. There is only one mention of PoS and PoW in its whitepaper but again, lacking the detail.
2. Kakao Mobility & Hashed
Early investors probably know that Hashed(Korea’s biggest VC) was an investor of MVL. At this point, they are no longer the advisors and MVL is not listed on Hashed’s portfolio. Why did this happen? Apparently Kakao Mobility(the subsidiary of Kakao that runs an Uber-like service in South Korea) is a shareholder of EASI6, the company conducting MVL ICO. For Kakao mobility, MVL was a potential threat, and wanted this project to be stopped. In regards to this action, Hashed, which probably has some ties with Kakao group decided to give up its advisory role as well. Of course there were existing and new advisors such as Japans’ Hotaru and Medibloc’s co-founder, but the loss of Hashed is definitely a big one. This is well-covered in the Korean telegram, but not covered in the English telegram. I believe the non-Korean investors should definitely be aware of this.
Final Remarks
In the end, a concern is a concern, and it is up to the project and its team to overcome these issues. Regardless, MVL does have a sound vision, and aims to solve a problem that many people do need in this society. As for the investors, I want provide all the important information since money is involved here. Anyways, I want to see how MVL will do in the future. Will it keep its increasing momentum? or will this end in a short hype followed by a dump? ICO OF KOREA will be watching.
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