Future-proofing Parcel Deliveries
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 4–5 years, you’re surely aware of the astounding technological breakthroughs in transportation. We’re talking about the rise of drones, AVs (autonomous vehicles) and IoT devices that connect everything to global networks.
Google, Uber and Tesla among others, are racing to implement their vision of highways full of AVs without a human driver in sight. Amazon has been developing and trialing their “Prime Air” drone delivery program since 2016, and Chinese e-commerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com are already sending packages by drones in certain rural areas which are difficult to access otherwise.
It’s only a question of time (and as we see, not too much time) until last mile deliveries are taken over by the unmanned vehicles of the highway and the aerial variety. The real question is, will this new last mile infrastructure be monopolized by a few e-commerce giants at the expense of consumers?
The Nightmare Scenario
Monopolization develops when the infrastructure is owned by the monopolist and competitors’ access to it is restricted by high fees, arbitrary rules and other anti-competitive tactics that monopolies are so good at.
We at PAKET believe in breaking up monopolies and in cooperation without a central authority. That’s why the above scenario of the new “unmanned last mile” infrastructures being promptly monopolized by 2–3 companies, doesn’t let us sleep at night.
Is there a different future where parcel delivery platforms are democratic and open to everyone?
Not So Fast
We believe that decentralization is the solution to the monopolization scenario. That’s why we’re building the Paket Protocol — an open protocol for a fully decentralized global package delivery network. Anyone can “launch” a package and anyone can take on the job of delivering it — either all the way or do just one leg of the route.
The open protocol architecture allows for different types of players participate in the delivery game. Storage hubs, insurance companies, courier cooperatives — all these services can be built on top of the PAKET Protocol stack.
The PAKET Solution — Future Proof
Our solution is completely agnostic as to senders, recipients and couriers. Normally, we’d think about these as people, but nothing stops the sender from being an automated storage facility and the courier from being an autonomous vehicle or a drone. PAKET Protocol is ready for the new infrastructure.
Imagine a small courier business who wants to buy a few drones and do unmanned deliveries. In the centralized world, they would have to compete with tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands of Amazon Prime Air drones and Waymo autonomous vehicles. Not a very promising proposition.
With decentralization, our small drone courier business doesn’t have to compete with giants anymore. They simply advertise their routes, their coverage areas and their fees on the PAKET Protocol’s marketplace. Now any small e-commerce business in the area sees their offer and can use this drone courier service for delivering products to their customers. Hand-offs between drones/storage hubs will be automated with delivery fees and collaterals paid in BUL tokens and administered by the PAKET Protocol smart contracts run on the Stellar blockchain.
In this future, new drone and AV technologies become part of an open, decentralized ecosystem instead of being monopolized by the centralized players. This leads to lower fees, more efficiency and complete transparency — a clear net positive for the world.
Join Paket Protocol’s Telegram group to find out more or visit our website.
