GM Financial, General Motors’ leasing, finance and leasing division, announced its partnership with blockchain startup Spring Labs. Last spring, the startup raised $ 15 million in a start-up round. The car rental company wants to join the Spring Founding Industry Partner Program to work with the startup.
GM sees the future in Blockchain
Spring Labs develops blockchain products, the first of which are expected in the first half of this year. Spring Labs CEO Adam Jiwan said:
“We’ve come together because we believe we can develop some applications that could fit the core businesses of GM Financial as the lender and perhaps GM as the parent company.”
This is not GM’s first push into blockchain. The company has already partnered with Hyperledger, which has developed open blockchain technology for businesses, and since the end of 2017 as well
IBM
J.P. Morgan
FedEx
among its members. For car rental manager Mike Kanarios, the partnership with Spring Labs is natural, as his company continues to be interested in Blockchain.
“We think they have the most momentum in this room,” says Kanarios.
The startup is developing a protocol that allows companies to securely exchange and verify sensitive information such as customer credit history. This could allow landlords and other institutions to share information about customer identities without violating customer privacy. It becomes easier to identify cheaters.
Discover Fraud with the Spring Labs Protocol
Kanarios believes that the Spring Labs GM protocol can help fraudsters use real and false identities to create and buy a new identity. Such scams cost GM Financial millions of dollars each year for both inventory loss and prevention. Kanarios says the Blockchain-based verification program can be better, faster, and cheaper than the car rental company’s previous capabilities. Identity fraud is a serious problem for many car rental companies. It can cause high costs. Kanarios believes landlords from other industries could benefit as well.
Benefit of the blockchain for the auto sector
The integration of the protocol into the car sector could not only benefit the rental. The registration and payment systems could also use the blockchain. David Treat, a Managing Director at Accenture, says the blockchain (what is Blockchain?) Can do in the auto industry. Insurance, traffic control, city planning for self-driving cars and artificial intelligence could be influenced and made safer. Like Accenture, GM is a member of the Mobility Open Blockchain initiative, which deals with the application of the Blockchain.