Copy of Sustainable DAOs | Transport Groups

Sustainable DAOs

Because they operate in silos, businesses and sectors fail to realise interdependences that are vital for sustainable development, transport, work and housing for example. Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) are making it possible for end users to participate collectively in solutions involving shared assets and services. They enable users and providers to co-own and govern the development of new services, establishing complex supply and demand for shared assets online, before changes to provision are made on the ground. DAOs pave the way to a sustainable, circular economy.

'Sustainable DAOs' are proposed to enable members combine their shared use of resources.

Transport: Combining their use of the same commuter shuttle, at the same time, or sharing access to the same vehicle, at different times
Housing: Combining successive owners of the same house so that, collectively, they only pay the interest on its equity once
Energy: Spreading the cost of energy efficient housing over the whole life of a building

Sustainability is made up from economic, environmental and social factors. Each of these must be included in sustainable solutions.

Transport

Economic: Only paying for the transport you need

Over 80% of journeys are made by private cars, which are parked 95% of the time. Car owners pay for this transport. Providing new services at the same time increases overall costs. Transport Groups make it possible for members to trade-in a combination of private cars for a combination of sustainable alternatives that meet the same needs, without a transport period during which they both exist at the same time.

Environment: Reducing transport's carbon emissions

Carbon rebound effect: One problem with saving people money through sustainable developments is if it is spent on things that have an even greater impact on the environment, air travel for example.

Social: Control over what's provided

Car owners require more than one new service to meet the same needs as their car. Only car owners know what this need is. If new services coexist with private cars of target users costs are increased, creating a barrier to change. Car owners need to be involved.
Forming Transport Groups: Establishing compatible supply and demand for a combination of new services that meet the same needs as a the combined cars of Transport Group members
Data: Forming Self Sovereign Digital Twins (SSDTs) gives people secure control over their data

Housing

Economic: Turning rent into equity

Linking transport, housing and energy only works if cost of all three can combined into a single, variable rent. This raises the problem of rent being seen as ‘throwing money away’. An existing DAO called ‘Built by DAO’ manages this by turning rent into equity. By passing equity from one house owner to the next it is possible to avoid paying the interest on capital for the same house more than once.

Environment: Producing more energy than consumed

Meeting Passivhaus standards

Social: Affordable housing for all

Energy

Economic: including energy in rent

Replace the usual "build cheap, sell high" model with "build for long-term efficiency, share in the savings".

Environment: Meeting Passivhaus Plus standards

Houses producing more energy than they consume

Social: Access to energy that is affordable and clean

No fuel poverty

NOtes:

Transport Groups are divided into 3 Parts, each making different use of smart contracts on a decentralised blockchain. Part 1 holds the money from road use charging in escrow, Part 2 crowdfunds supply and demand, and Part 3 manages variable pay-per-use rates for new services.

Part 1. Carbon offsetting cars
Linking new services with the cars they substitute makes it possible to validate carbon reductions and create new revenue streams for developing transport. Instead of solutions such as Low Emission Zones or *Workplace Parking Levies, car commuters buy tokens which they link to the development of a specific Transport Group, one that will enable them to own fewer cars. Funds are held by a smart contract, on behalf of the Transport Group, until supply and demand for its new services has been established (Part 2). Data from car use before this transition and from the use of alternatives, after the transition, is used to validate the reduction in carbon emissions. Tokens can then be sold as carbon credits to the voluntary carbon market. Car commuters participate by either changing to sustainable alternatives or continuing to drive and buying tokens to offset their cars. Employers can collaborate to meet ESG commitments using data and communication links to identify, prompt and incentivise potentially compatible users in a targeted way.

* The Workplace Parking Levy in Nottingham costs employers £550 per place per year, in Sydney it is $2,950

Part 2. Crowdfunding supply and demand
Conventional Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms only integrate existing transport supply. The alternative here involves providers and users establishing both supply and demand to form Transport Groups, small DAOs. This enables manufacturers, operators and end users to co-own and govern the development of new services. Transport Groups are crowdfunded online, before changes to car ownership and transport provision are made on the ground. This avoids increasing costs when new services would normally have to coexist with the private cars of targeted users. It allows the viability of one new service to be conditional on the viability of another new service. Using a decentralised solution overcomes problems of complexity, lack of knowledge and illiquidity of cars, which have previously made it impossible to affect a modal shift.

Part 3. Shifting financial responsibility
In the crowdfunding process of Part 2, members of a Transport Group commit to dynamic pay-per-use rates that cover the cost of new services. They collectively ‘trade-in’ their combined cars for combined alternatives that meet the same needs. As with trading-in a single car, this ensures there is no time during which they are both paid for at the same time. It shifts financial responsibility for developing new services from providers to users. A smart contract manages variable pay-per-use rates, using data sent by an oracle network from real world events, such as transport being used or provided. Controlling pay-per-use rates also allows a Transport Group to issue tokens and raise its initial funding from the future savings made by owning fewer cars.

Use case walk through

The starting point is a car-dependent community with limited access to sustainable alternatives. Car owners use an SSID-enabled CAZ app. to start forming Transport Groups and build a digital twins representation of their transport needs. The following steps provide a simple example, where shared access to cars, 'Carshare', is the new shared service:

Car owners are offered a "Carshare" option to select in the CAZ app.
An AI assesses the compatibility of drivers to carshare.
Initially, no compatible drivers are found.
A car commuter ticks another box to select an alternative commuting option, even though it is not yet available on the ground. Options might include cycling, rail, shuttle, vanpool, or working from home. Use of this would change the commuter’s need for a car, and their compatibility to carshare.
The AI re-evaluates the community’s compatibility for carsharing. Now, if the alternative service is provided, there are two drivers identified who would be compatible to share one car, and use the new service, instead of each owning a separate car.
This process needs to be repeated if the alternative service requires more than one user to be viable, e.g. shuttle or vanpool.
Compatible users and providers form a Transport Group, which uses a smart contract to manage variable pay-per-use rates for the new services.
By committing to the Transport Group, members effectively create a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), enabling them to co-own and govern the new services.
The Transport Group "trades-in" its combined cars for the combined alternatives.

New Example: Passenger rail and Car Free Housing in Arizona (Link)

The interdependence of Passenger Rail and Car Free Housing could be realised by a Transport Group that includes 3 different blockchain tokens in housing rent:

Token 1: Distributes profits of the railway to token holders
Token 2: Sold as Voluntary Carbon Credits, using Transport Group validation of reduced car ownership
Token 3: Sold to people who remain car owners, as part of their payments for CAZ charging, motivated by reducing congestion