Are Drones as an Investment?
A company called Drone Employee aims to make it possible to use drones as an investment.
Drone Employee has created an open-sourced platform that serves as both an operating system for drones and a marketplace place for drone services. The system utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and the robot operating system (ROS) to sell or lease drone services purposes such as delivery.
Software installed on its drones includes the Go-Ethereum Client, the Go-Ethereum Client lets users mine Ether (ETH), transfer funds, create contracts and send transactions (probably through smart contracts, and explore block history. Drone Employee is making it possible for anybody to invest in Drone services through Ethereum.
Hire a Drone Employee???
The hope is that people will purchase drone services for uses like surveillance, security monitoring, aerial filming, surveying, and delivery through Drone Employee. The company offers solutions that companies manage a fleet of drones and use drones without human pilots.
Customers can either buy a drone or hire a drone through Drone Employee. The company’s system supports 15 drone manufacturers.
“Your drone employee can accept orders, process payments and fly autonomous missions,” the Drone Employee website boasts.
You can Now Hire a Drone through Facebook???
“With our software, you can create anything from a drone selfie base to a complex delivery network,” the press release claims. “And now you can hire drone just by texting to it directly.”
The company even lets customers hire drones directly through Facebook, a press release indicates. Drone services can be purchased directly through Facebook Messenger using Drone Employee’s technology.
The company did say whether you will be able to hire a drone through other social media solutions such as WhatsApp and Telegram. Although it has deployed a Facebook Bot that lets you hire drones through that solution.
A Blockchain Platform for Drones
The Facebook Bot apparently uses Ethereum blockchain technology to make secure transactions. The ultimate plan for Drone Employee is to create a blockchain platform to operate drones.
Drone Employee demonstrates just how great the potential of the intersection of the blockhain and the Internet of Things (IoT) is. It appears to be one of the first companies actually selling IoT services through the blockchain.
Several companies including Aitheon and SyncFab have far more ambitious plans. Aitheon wants to sell robots operated by the blockchain and pilot self-driving vehicles through the blockchain. SyncFab has plans to operate a wide variety of industrial equipment with the blockchain.
Drone Employee has a Lot to Prove
Drone Employee’s ambitions go far beyond drones; the company is part of the Blockchain.aero Consortium, which wants to build a blockchain operating system and marketplace for flying cars. Blockchain.aero’s long-term goal is to offer flying taxi service in many of the world’s cities. It is partnering with a number of aerospace companies that have plans to build flying cars.
It looks as if you will soon be able to invest in a wide variety of robots and automated devices through the Internet of Things (IoT) and the blockchain. The technology is available now, what is not known is if anybody can make money by operating or leasing drones on the blockchain. Drone Employee is one company which has a lot to prove.
