How technology is tracking Africa’s motorcycle taxis.
Boda bodas are synonymous with life in East Africa, and in busy cities like Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam, these motorbike taxis are the perfect way to zip your way to your destination.
For millions of Africans, boda bodas are the primary form of transportation and an important means of income. The sector is about to experience a new wave of innovation, with blockchain technology capable of real-time tracking of vehicles backed by property financing company Watu.
In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Watu announced a new partnership with Noddles to improve the vehicle tracking of motorcycles, with its funding of a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) powered by the blockchain.
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WATU has provided loans to more than one million Africans in seven countries, enabling individuals to finance the purchase of motorcycles and taxi services.
Noodle DP's infrastructure generates real-time location information for the vehicles, to protect owners in the event of theft and to help Watu gain better visibility of the assets it has purchased.
The project will start in Uganda in May 2024 and expand to Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the next few months.
Watu's asset location solution is built on the Node Network, a decentralized mobile network where users' smartphones act as nodes in a secure DPin.
NoddleDeep is powered by smartphones and is supposed to provide wide coverage and accurate monitoring due to the ubiquity of smartphones and superior geo-location capabilities.
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Noodle founder and CEO Micha Benoliel said the partnership with Watu will significantly increase the network's reach in Africa. In the year By 2030, smartphones will account for 88% of mobile communications, compared to the current rate of 50%.
According to Gunnars Bidins, head of GPS tracking at Watu, the Node network is ideal for Watu's asset management needs:
“This partnership will allow us to track our resource ships in an efficient and cost-effective manner, ensuring the safety and security of our assets throughout our expanding African operations.”
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Noddle Chief Product Officer Florent Stropa believes the use case with Wattu demonstrates the benefits of DEP for the economy and society. He said the congested network allows new services to be deployed quickly and cost-effectively.
“In this case, the technology is used to track assets that are usually hard to find. We are excited to work with Watu on this deployment.”
DePINs is a rapidly growing sector of the blockchain industry. The technology is being used in projects like io.net and other real-world use cases to access cloud computing resources, which were explored in a recent episode of Cointelegraph's decentralized podcast.
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