A variety of decentralized passenger transportation applications could emerge based on TRIP.
Decentralized Engineering Corporation (DEC), known as the developer of The Rideshare Protocol (TRIP), has raised $9 million in an investment round to develop a decentralized competitor in the U.S. transportation market, where Uber plays a significant role.
DEC already has a contender for the status of a decentralized competitor to Uber – it’s the Teleport application. That said, the protocol itself provides an opportunity for other companies to create their own decentralized applications in this area based on TRIP, which is built on top of a blockchain Solana.
Funds such as Thursday Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, 305 Ventures and Common Metal participated in the investment round for DEC, while venture capital firms Foundation Capital and Road Capital led the round. Individual strategic investors include former Uber employee and tech specialist Ryan McKillen, as well as media influencer Jake Paul, Flexport founder Ryan Petersen, and Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero.
Recall that by some estimates, Uber accounts for about 72% of the market in the U.S. passenger transportation segment. The idea behind TRIP is to connect carriers and potential passengers in a decentralized way. That said, a lot of competition is expected for decentralized TRIP-based applications.
According to the DEC, TRIP will have its own “control tokens,” in which investors can jointly decide on the development of this protocol. At the same time in the work of the already launched Teleport application such tokens are not expected to be used as a payment option.
When using Teleport to pay in the U.S., passengers use either their credit cards or USDC stabelcoins, and car drivers receive payment either to their bank account or in the form of USDC to their digital wallet.
DEC said that the funding it received would bring the Teleport application to the mass market within six to nine months, and they have already seen interest from some fleet owner companies in developing their TRIP-based applications.
