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A metal frame with four small and two large propellers – carrying a container the size of a refrigerator – rises in the air with a roar, hovering over a deserted road in the middle of snowy fields.
The video was shot on the aerodrome near the Russian city of Kazan, located south-east of Moscow, and the car is a SKYF drone, designed by a team of Russian aeronautical engineers.
According to its creators, the drone can carry up to 880 pounds, travel up to 220 miles and work up to 8 hours. And everything that happens to these drones will be recorded on the project's blockchain, SKYFchain.
The SKYF team is looking to enter a fast-growing ecosystem, with PwC evaluating the emerging global drone market at over $ 127 billion in 2016. To date, drones can only carry small items, but the team SKYF aims to open a totally new market for heavy cargo drones.
The idea is that they will serve multiple purposes, such as the delivery of large quantities of goods, the fight against fires and the spraying of insecticides and fertilizers on agricultural land.
SKYF is a decidedly Russian project. The drones are produced nationally by OKB Aviareshenia Ltd., a subsidiary of the British entity ARDN Technologies. Both entities were founded by the same team of engineers and technology entrepreneurs: Aleksander Timofeev and Ilya Rodin – managing partner of the FPI venture fund – engineers Dmitry Arsentyev, Marat Sabirov and Nail Zinnurov and others
To financially support the project , the team is in possession of an initial offer of coins (ICO). In February, Skyfdrones Services OU, a company registered in Estonia by Alexander Timofeev, registered the sale of tokens with the US Securities and Exchange Commission under the D form (Article 506 (c)) of exemption, declaring an objective to collect $ 30 million. [19659002] Recently, this plan has been adjusted: so far, the project has managed to raise about $ 6 million and plans to raise about $ 500,000 more before the end of ICO. Timofeev told CoinDesk that 45% of the funds will be spent on R & D
Reliable delivery
According to Ilya Rodin, SK's manager at SKYF, the use of blockchain in this context is aimed at creating a trust between stakeholders, including public and private sector interests.
"We need a blockchain to build trust among counterparts: banks, leasing and insurance companies, producers and users of drones, government agencies, licensing organizations, self-regulating organizations and so on" Rodin told CoinDesk
The idea is that the data that is stored will include various information about the drones. This includes information on what licenses the builders own, the drone routes, their performance and data on the people who run them.
"Drones are new, banks do not know how to evaluate them and calculate interest rates for them, how to monitor their use," added Olga Budnik, a PR director at ARDN. "So they'd rather deny a loan or lease rather than take a risk and give them a tool to follow the life of a drone."
The idea for the start was born in 2014, when Dmitry Arsentyev was trying to create a flying bike – but in the end, he ended up working on an industrial drone with Sabirov and Zinnurov. Shortly thereafter, in 2014, they received investments and support from FPI, writes the magazine Inc.
"Initially, the guys had a prototype of a flying autopilot taxi," explained Alexander Timofeev. "We realized that the system was new and feasible, but we convinced them to turn it into an unmanned loading platform."
Timofeev believes that drone delivery will be required in areas with poor road infrastructure. This is especially true in places such as northern Russia and the banks of the great Siberian rivers, where bridges are very far from one another and move from one side to the other using road vehicles for miles of extra driving.
Putting the drones at work
Although things are in the early stages, the start is carrying out its ambitious plans for its fleet connected to the blockchain.
At the heart of the project is the token, which according to the team will play a key role
"From the beginning of SKYFchain the drone SKYF autopilot will require authorization in the SKYFchain to to raise, "says the white document of the project.
ARDN has produced three drones so far, but the plan is that by 2021 there will be more than 1100 SKYF drones operating all over the world. Looking further, the goal is for other air, sea and land drone manufacturers to join the SKYFchain network.
And at that time, project supporters hope to see 12.5 million transactions done on their specially constructed blockchain.
In addition, the company has already secured partnerships with the Vietnamese ITC port, a Chinese delivery company ZTO Express and a number of Russian entities, including agricultural, delivery and oil and gas companies, as well as the Department of Transportation of the region of the Far East of Khabarovsk, ARDN says.
The parties involved signed preliminary agreements to test SKYF drones for possible applications in their activities.
Drone image via the website SKYFchain [19659026] The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a reference point that is committed to the highest journalistic standards and adheres to a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group, which invests in criptovalute and blockchain startups.
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