Consumer Reports listed 5 Auto Repair Shop Scams Your Mechanic Might Try and one of the scariest and most unscrupulous ones they wrote about was how a repair shop might just spray coolant on a part of the engine to give you the impression that you have a leaking radiator. This would mean that you end up carrying out repair that was not really necessary. Car repair scams are not really new and most people feel a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty when their vehicle has some issue. This in an era where we are talking about self-driving cars, electric and fuel cell powered vehicles and an industry that is fast embracing new technologies. Yet, there is one technology that has the potential to change automotive industry forever and restore verifiability, transparency and trust in segments such as auto repair, insurance and sales. The Vehicle Lifecycle Blockchain (VLB)

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Blockchain front and center

Blockchain technology has played a revolutionary role across industries whether it be finance, technology or even medicine but till now the automotive industry has not been touched by it. With VLB, we are about to experience the meeting of blockchain and automotive sector. VLB will operate across repair shops, manufacturers, insurers, financiers and other constituents of the automotive industry. As an example manufacturers would be able to get reliable maintenance records and gain from a transparent warranty system using VLB. The force behind VLB are CarFix, one of Russia’s most well known businesses with over 250,000 serviced customers and a network of 500 repair shops. CarFix have earned the trust of major car fleet operators such as Uber and Fleetcor. There is even a major car manufacturer on board. The deployment of the blockchain would be initiated with CarFix, who would use their real world experience to popularise the system. After the system establishes a foothold, the role of CarFix would be diminished and VLB would be established industry wide as the blockchain

THE token for the auto industry

VLB token, which is at the heart of the VLB blockchain is a utility token. This Ethereum ERC-20 complaint token will be mandatory for various participants and users in the VLB ecosystem to make and record transactions. There are a total of 200 million VLB tokens that would be put on sale during an ongoing  initial coin offering (ICO) due to end on December 17, 2017. The token sale has bonuses available for early investors, with the current bonus being 195 VLB to 1 ETH instead of the 165 VLB available after the bonus period is over.

Investors can find more information about how to participate in the VLB ICO on their website.

VLB is a  win-win for industry, investors and customers

The value of VLB lies in its ability to serve the needs of automotive industry, investors in their project as well as the broader customers of various segments that make up the automotive industry. As the use of VLB increases, there are estimates made by CarFix that there would be an involvement of  an average of  3.5 paying participants per transaction and that the demand for VLB tokens would rise by 16+ times in the coming 5 years to 4.4 bln per year. This basically means that investors in the tokens have a chance to profit from appreciation in the price of VLB token as scarcity mounts. The technology that VLB are promising to bring to the industry will change the way it operates and cut down on costs of the stakeholders. As an example Insurers stand to benefit as claim management gets streamlined. Repair shops too will be able to use CarFix’s franchise network and gain customer trust. The ultimate benefit  will be for the customers, who will be able to track and trace and know for sure that the work done on their vehicle is of good quality and was only done because it was absolutely necessary. In the long-term VLB can lead to savings and safety for vulnerable customers who today have no way of telling if they are being taken for a ride.