Vehicle ID
Every car on the road has a VIN, which is the unique identifier for your car. The VIN standard was designed when computers looked like this, and it turns 70 years old in 2024.
DIMO brings vehicle identity capabilities to the bleeding edge of modern technology by creating an on-chain open Vehicle ID (NFT) for your car.
This NFT isn't a jpeg that's only useful as a Twitter profile picture, it’s your key to ownership records, selected driving data, and control of your vehicle.
As vehicle data is sent to the DIMO network, it is securely transmitted and immutably linked to the Vehicle ID. Similarly, documents (e.g., vehicle title, insurance) and attestations (e.g., has a v8 engine installed) can be similarly linked. Lastly, users are able to specify roles and permissions related to a car, such as the ability to view it's location, driving data, transfer the vehicle ownership, and more.
Public data: vehicle make, model, year and place of manufacture, the blockchain wallet address of the owner and various role holders who can see vehicle data, and the user generated image.
Private data: everything else can only be seen by the user and those they opt-in to sharing data with. This private data includes vehicle telemetry data, location, VIN, documents, and more.
An example NFT shown on OpenSea
As an open and extensible building block, further data can be attached over time, increasing the value of the vehicle ID as a digital asset.
Automotive manufacturers, insurance companies, banks, and DMVs don’t want to rely on a corporation’s private database as the canonical digital ID of a car. They're not willing to let others edit data behind closed doors, dictate the terms, and lock them out. They only reluctantly support Apple CarPlay because of overwhelming customer demand.
The only chance of them building on DIMO will come if the source of truth for a vehicle's digital ID is trustless and the infrastructure is open and neutral. No vehicle manufacturer, mechanic, or loan underwriter has to worry about DIMO or any other company locking them or tampering with the records. This is the major innovation with immutable, transparent, and trustless blockchain technology.
DIMO vehicle IDs can track the full lifecycle of a car, increasing it's value
DIMO uses the existing trust models of the automotive industry provide unique tools to validate (1) a car exists and has certain properties, (2) the user has ownership of that car, and (3) it has actually been driven (Proof of Movement).
VINs provide some Sybil resistance for Vehicle IDs
Each device in the DIMO network must have its own ID which conforms to a W3C standard. Such identity exists without any central authority and is securely and privately linked to other identities (e.g., an owner and authorized drivers). This allows the device to manage its own data and, in the future, transact with other devices.
The cost of minting the device on-chain as an NFT provides some protection from sybil attacks, and DIMO apps are required to provide a proof that they've received telematics or verified documentation from the vehicle owner prior to minting, and the same vehicle cannot be minted with an "Active" status twice.
Each device ID will reference where the encrypted and signed data is stored. This will provide a future-proof way to address the device as well as integrate with other distributed systems.
Last modified 4mo ago