Covid-19 has caused a drastic re-thinking of plenty of things in our lives. For many, this includes the practical necessity of commuting and even city travel. Similarly, blockchain technology has encouraged developers and creators to think further outside the box for the new era of the internet.

One such rethink and innovation is the concept of Mobility as a Service, with WheelCoin hoping to serve as a use-case for crypto to encourage greener travel.

In a blog post by Iomob CEO – Boyd Cohen – he cites the key potential of this project, bridging the interesting gap between transportation and blockchain.

“This is where WheelCoin comes in. Iomob was founded in 2018 with the vision to build a decentralized internet of mobility network (IoM) by seamlessly connecting public, private and shared mobility services with transport and travel operators seeking to make seamless multimodal mobility a reality for their users or employees.”

To accomplish this, the company will launch an application where users can find, book and pay for an alternative, green mobility services while getting token rewards for their choices. While details are unclear, Cohen added that NFTs designed to reflect modes of travel (scooters, bikes and trains) have already been designed, with more to come.

Kicking out the car – WheelCoin and Mobility as a Service
Similar (somewhat) to Move-to-Earn’s mission to boost physical activity, Mobility-as-a-Service aims to get users to consider alternative modes of transport. Given the typical thought that gets conjured up of the daily commute. With thousands of people stuck in car-based gridlock, MaaS is an alternative worth considering.

MaaS sees itself as a way to kick-start a new means of transportation and travel. Where users take a more multimodal approach seamlessly and sustainably.

Of course, as Cohen admits, some of the harder obstacles to overcome would be the joint matters of convenience and human habit.

“As it turns out, humans are creatures of habit. To get people to change from car dependence-potentially even moreso post-Covid-to more sustainable multimodal mobility in our cities and regions, incentives may be critical.”

To ensure that WheelCoin has the means to overcome these challenges, the first version of the platform will be launched on September 15th to the first 5,000 subscribers. While using the app, users will earn points for their travel choices, with the modes that cause the least emissions being rewarded the most. In this phase, users do not have to book and pay for services inside the app to be rewarded with Wheelies points (which will later convert to WheelCoin tokens).