Gapless is going to allocate the raised money to further develop its key product, an application that allows users to record a complete history of vehicles, as well as increase its user base.
According to Gapless, it currently manages over 50,000 vehicles on its platform in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Porsche has participated in a 5.5 million euros ($5.9 million) funding round for a German startup Gapless – the developer of a blockchain-based vehicle management system.
Among other contributors, Gapless saw FinLab EOS VC Fund, a joint venture between Block.one and FinLab, and insurance entrepreneur Kersten Jodexnis, Tech.eu reported on April 29.
Investing in future technologies
Porsche told Cointelegraph that it is “constantly looking into and investing in future technologies and will evaluate case by case if such products or services can be deployed by Porsche to enhance the customer experience.” The company further stated:
“We evaluated and piloted several blockchain-based solutions. Blockchain can be a potential benefit for any trust-based interactions that requires a decentralized approach.”
Vehicle data migrates to the blockchain
Tech companies and vehicle manufacturers alike have been developing blockchain-based solutions for tracking the life cycle of automobiles and improving driver experience.
Recently, Indian blockchain firm Smart Sight Innovation developed a blockchain app designed to improve maintenance and inspection of various vehicles. SSI’s app creates a summary of various issues – like repair work and compliance with inspection criteria – faced by a vehicle and allows users to share information with each other.
Earlier in April, General Motors filed a patent application for a continuously updating navigation map system. The system would use blockchain to integrate data from vehicle sensors and build a reliable map for autonomous vehicles.
Another leading car manufacturer, BMW Group, revealed plans to roll out its blockchain supply chain solution to 10 suppliers this year.
Polkadot Soft-Launches Its Experimental ‘Canary Network’ Kusama
Blockchain interoperability protocol, Polkadot, launched its experimental “canary network” dubbed Kusama, this morning, Aug. 23. In a blog post, the team announced the first deployment in the wild of its protocol, combining “bleeding-edge technical improvements in governance, consensus and scalability.”
Limited functionality for soft launch
In order to get off the ground, Kusama was begun as a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) network. All validator nodes are currently being run exclusively by the Web3 foundation. During this initial period much of the functionality is disabled, most notably balance transfers and governance. Functionality will be limited to staking, sessions and claims modules.
The period will continue until between 50 and 100 well-backed validators are bonded and ready. After this, which Polkadot expect to last from one to four weeks, an upgrade will be introduced to remove Web3’s authority over the chain.
Effectively, this will transform Kusama from a centralized PoA network to a decentralized Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network. At this point, governance and transfers will be activated, and the Kusama network will be functionally live.
Canary Network
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Kusama “canary network” is a conscious decision to eschew “fake” test-nets and “step into this unknown and see what chaos awaits.”
Kusama will only exist as long as there is community demand, and Polkadot expects it to unlock new, high-risk functionality and projects that would serve as a preparation stage for development and deployment on Polkadot.
Police Seize $15K Crypto Thief After He Mistakenly Disclosed Identity
Connecticut police caught a man who had stolen over $15,000 worth of digital currency in a mobile phone theft after he mistakenly sent an apology email to a detective heading the investigation.
Back in April, a Connecticut resident fell victim to a cryptocurrency theft by New Jersey citizen Darren Carter, wherein the latter swiped the victim’s mobile phone and allegedly transferred $15,472 worth of crypto from their Coinbase account. Carter subsequently converted the funds to U.S. dollars that he transferred to his PayPal account, New Jersey-focused news outlet NJ.com reported on Sept. 2.
Carter decided to apologize to the victim via email, however he mistakenly sent the letter to a detective investigating the case. The police who arrived to arrest Carter for identity theft found him already sentenced in the Salem County jail for unrelated charges. The authorities recovered the stolen funds from PayPal and returned them to the victim.
Crypto crimes proliferate
In late August, Cointelegraph reported that Australian citizen Katherine Nguyen pleaded guilty to stealing $450,000 in XRP – over 100,000 tokens – in January 2018. Nguyen had hacked into the email account of a man with the same last name.
Also this summer, a former employee at Microsoft was arrested for a scheme to steal $10 million in cryptocurrency. During the seven months of his scheme, $2.8 million was found to have been transferred into his bank accounts.
As blockchain security company CipherTrace recently reported, cyber criminals netted $4.3 billion from digital currency exchanges, investors and users in 2019. In the first quarter of 2019, hackers reportedly stole over $124 million from cryptocurrency exchanges, with a total of $480 million stolen from exchanges in 2019.
