Towards Blockchain-based Ride-sharing Systems

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been used in finance, health care, supply chain, and transport, with the main goals of improving security and eliminating the need for a third party to manage transactions in the system. In blockchain, smart contracts are used to facilitate negotiation between stakeholders. The sharing economy movement has gained popularity in recent years in various sectors including transport. Ride-sharing has become an important component of sustainable transportation by increasing vehicle utilisation and reducing the number of vehicles on the road. Current ride-sharing systems are centralised with an intermediary maintaining users’ data and managing transactions between drivers and passengers. This paper proposes the use of blockchain and in particular smart contracts, to develop decentralised ride-sharing systems. The benefits of having a distributed approach to maintaining users’ data and managing transactions between users include more automation, more transparency, better data privacy, and possibly more trust between users.