Austrian Carsharing Startup Eloop Is Tokenising Electric Cars
One year ago, the Austrian startup Eloop started its sharing service for e-cars in Vienna – and was already communicating back then: The intention was to enable users to invest in the e-vehicle fleet via blockchain and cryptocurrencies and to give them a share of the revenue. Now the time has come: At a token sale starting today, interested parties can buy the new Eloop One Token (EOT).
Anyone who owns tokens will be able to participate in the startup’s revenues. „The term ‚car sharing‘ currently stands for app-based car rentals. We want to translate the meaning of sharing implied in the term into reality by sharing not only our e-cars with citizens, but also the revenues,“ says Leroy Hofer, one of Eloop’s co-founders and CEO. „Anyone who has one of these tokens is making money from car-sharing rides.“ The revenue share can either be paid out in Euros or converted into credits for the car sharing service.
„Asset Backed Token“
The tokens, which by the way are not based on Ethereum like many others, but on the 0bsnetwork, were designed as security tokens, i.e. a digitalized version of a security. „This protocol was used for various reasons. Some of the most important reasons were the low network fees, the network speed and proof of stack. Low fees and high speed are essential for efficient implementation, since a large number of micro-transactions are involved. The protocol also allows smart tokens and smart accounts,“ Hofer says.
More precisely, EOTs are so-called „asset-backed tokens“; in total, there are initially exactly 240,000 EOTs. „The value corresponds to four BMW i3s that are already in our car-sharing fleet at Eloop,“ says Hofer. „These cars were tokenized, i.e. they are displayed on the blockchain using EOT. Depending on user demand, more cars will be tokenised gradually, which will also increase the token supply. As a buyer of a token (exactly one Euro per token is required) you get a fraction of a car. If the car generates revenue via car sharing, this is distributed proportionally to the owners of the tokens.
Tokenization of Assets
The tokenization of a wide variety of assets is a trend that has been spreading recently. For example, in Security Token Offerings (STOs), the shares of companies are represented in tokens. In Austria, Blockpit and Blue Power, for example, have carried out STOs in order to raise money from investors – in return, tokens were issued. Black Manta Capital, in turn, has received the blessing of the financial supervisory authorities in Germany to enable small investors to invest in luxury apartments in Berlin via tokens . The Eloop tokens are also classified as Security Token – the young company was advised by the law firm DLA Piper.
At Eloop, the shares in an electric car are now displayed as tokens. In a first step, 240,000 EOTs will be sold at one euro each, bringing in 240,000 euros. When new electric cars are added to the fleet, more tokens can be created to bring the new vehicles onto the blockchain. The current token sale runs until end of December or until all tokens have been sold. Later, the EOTs should also be able to be traded on crypto exchanges. They will then be subject to pricing on the crypto-market – and their value may rise as well as fall. This is another thing you should keep in mind when you want to invest.
