International Journal of Advances in Electronics and Computer Science, ISSN(p): 2394-2835 Volume-6, Issue-5, May-2019 http://iraj.in APPLING BLOCK-CHAIN FOR BIKE SHARING SMART CONTRACT 1IUON-CHANG LIN, 2YUNG-CHEN CHOU, 3TZU-CHUN LIAO 1,3Department of Management Information Systems, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo-Kuang Road, Taichung, Taiwan 1Department of Photonics and Communication Engineering, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan 2Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Asia University, 50 Lioufeng RD., Wufeng, Taichung 41354, Taiwan E-mail: [email protected] Abstract - People's awareness of environment has risen in recent years, more and more energy saving and carbon reduction policy were popularized and got attention by the government, people were also gradually changing their habits and customs to rejoin the concept of green life style. Bike rental service combine sightseeing with exercise, is always a popular public transport. In Taiwan, Youbike is a well-known brand of public bike rental service, however, in China, they have another type of bike rental service, which is a fully station-less bicycle-sharing system. Except to find out the difference between the two type of bike rental service and each of their problems, this research also wants to solve current bike rental service encountered difficulties by using blockchain technology and smart contract, and to make a feasible solution for the realization of bicycle sharing economy. Keywords - Blockchain, Smart Contract, Sharing Economy, Bike Rental I. INTRODUCTION Denmark, Germany and France, America also have their own bike sharing system. But compared with Bicycle rental service has been in place for years, now China’s bike sharing markets, Europe and the United the trend of sharing economy also goes viral on States seems not so strong as China, some operators bicycle market. Bicycle rental service can be divided were quit due to operating loss and lack of funds. into two types, one is fixed stations mode, like common bicycle rental service, the other is station-less Problems in bike sharing bicycle-sharing system, which is more innovative way China’s bike sharing systems are both station-less, and to rent a bike. other countries are still using fixed Stations mode to Compared to traditional bicycle rental service, provide bicycle rental service, but gradually imitate station-less bicycle-sharing system is more convenient China, come up with station-less bicycle-sharing because it doesn’t need to go to a specific location to system. On the other hand, from the bicycle rental rent or return a bike. But it still caused some problem, payment point of view, people in China use mobile like people might illegal parking when they couldn’t payment, and Europe and the United States area use find a legal place to park their bike, or if there doesn’t credit card to pay. have enough bikes on the road, it will harder to find a Whether it is fixed stations mode or station-less mode, bike than fixed station mode because it’s too both of them have pros and cons individually. It will dispersed. face some challenges no matter it comes from the In order to solve problem like we just talk about it, this process of rent and return, or method of payment. Now. paper wants to offer a method that can popularize the This paper will discuss to fixed stations mode and concept of bike sharing by using smart contract, makes station-less mode about their own advantages and more and more people willing to provide their bike to disadvantages, summarized four problems in these each other, and achieve the real Bike Sharing two types of bike sharing system. Economy. Fixed stations mode: II. RELATED WORKS Fixed stations mode is the most common method in bicycle rental service markets, develop earlier than In Taiwan, Youbike is the most common and most station-less mode. Companies use this method are popular brand in bicycle rental service, and oBike, Youbike- Taiwan, Citi Bike- New York, Capital which was came from Singapore, also provided Bikeshare- Washington, Santander Cycles- UK, bicycle rental service in Taiwan since 2017. In foreign Velib- Paris, MBS- Melbourne, Ddareungi- Seoul, countries, China became a vigorous development area Greenolution- Delhi. in bike sharing, representative company such as ofo, Advantages include: Mobike and Bluegogo. In Europe and the United 1. Easy in management and vehicle scheduling. States, Netherlands is first tried on bike sharing, which 2. The quality of the bikes is more consistent. is also renowned for bicycle kingdom. There are 3. Vehicles are less likely to be stolen. others brand of bicycle rental service in Spain, UK, 4. Won't cause chaos in illegal parking. Appling Block-Chain for Bike Sharing Smart Contract 42 International Journal of Advances in Electronics and Computer Science, ISSN(p): 2394-2835 Volume-6, Issue-5, May-2019 http://iraj.in 5. Rent is cheaper. reduce cost of vehicle scheduling. Disadvantages include: How to solve the problem of bike quality 1. Needs to return bike at specific location. which were providing by public. 2. Situation of no place to park may happens. 3. Usually have complicated procedure on III. SMART CONTRACT BIKE SHARING operating machine before you rent a bike. SYSTEM 4. Costs fund and needs additional field to build stations. There are four kind of problems in bike sharing. 1. User violation problem Station-less mode: 2. Bike rental problem Present by China's bike sharing company- "ofo", 3. Vehicle scheduling problem which is an innovative bicycle rental operation mode 4. Bike quality problem and popular in China. Combined with the concept of In User violation problem, it contains users hide the sharing economy, bicycle operators around the world bike in their private area, users park the bike in an have begun to use this kind of bike rental type in inappropriate place, users damage the bike, users steal recent years. Companies use this method are ofo, the bike, users put their own lock on the bike or users Mobike and Bluegogo- China, oBike- Singapore, call break the traffic rules. a bike- Germany, Donkey Republic- Copenhagen, In Bike rental problem, people may not able to find a Urbee- Amsterdam, Dropbyke- Barcelona. bike easily if the number of bikes are not enough, or Advantages include: bikes were parked in a remote area. As you can see, 1. High convenience, can return bike in although station-less mode is convenient to user who anywhere. wants to return bikes, but it might also bring 2. Solve the problem of no place to park. inconvenience to next user who wants to rent bikes. 3. Easy to register and rent in apps through the In Vehicle scheduling problem, because station-less mobile phone. mode doesn’t have bike stations to limit the range of 4. Saving the land cost and equipment cost for riding distance, users can ride bikes to anywhere they building stations. want. It’s possible that bikes will be parked in some Disadvantages include: remote and low renting rate area, so this will lead to 1. Hard to manage, high cost in vehicle vehicle scheduling problem, how to reduce the cost of scheduling. vehicle scheduling will be an important issue. 2. The quality of the bike will be uneven if bikes In Bike quality problem, because the current bike were providing by public. sharing companies offer their own bikes and make 3. People might hold or hide the bike for his/her bikes by themselves, the quality of the bikes is own purpose. consistent. But if we want to implement the concept of 4. If the number of bicycles are not enough, it sharing economy by using public’s bikes as rental will hard to find a bike. tools, then it will be a problem when we are facing different types, different age or different condition of We can see from the above comparison that fixed bikes. Therefore, how to design the rental process and stations mode and station-less mode have relatively formulate a fair charge method will be a big challenge advantages and disadvantages, and the reason that for operators. caused station-less mode’s problems were often came To fix those four problems, this paper brings forward from human nature. Station-less mode solves fixed an idea which combines Blockchain technology and stations mode’s parking problem, but cause another Smart Contract, hoping it will become an useful illegal parking problem. Although station-less mode solution by applying this system. makes users more convenient in bike returning, but it Smart Contract Bike Sharing System is applied in also brings inconvenience to next user if the bike was station-less mode, the idea is allowing users to provide parked too far, reduce the chance of bicycle rental. In their own bike, and make a customized smart contract addition to cause the cost of vehicle scheduling through Ethereum platform. After signing a contract, problems, it may also violate the purpose of sharing bike’s using permission will shift from lender to economy. Therefore, combined with these two mode borrower, completing the rental service and achieving characteristics, we can sum up some several dilemmas the real concept of bike sharing economy. which are current bike sharing economy has Anyone can put on his/her own bike and lending to encountered: others by using smart contract, or renting from others. How to solve illegal parking problem, and Users can formulate different rules or conditions, like stop others inappropriate behavior such as rent amount and limit of rental time, or other damage the bike. regulations. How to solve the problem of can’t find a bike This type of bike rental service is different from base on station-less mode.