Technological progress rarely follows a straight lineāit advances in leaps and bounds. Every few decades, a groundbreaking innovation creates new possibilities, either by introducing a previously unknown technology to the market or because enough people gain access to the necessary devices and financial resources to adopt it. The last major leaps were the internet and mobile communications, which have enabled billions of people to stay connected anytime, anywhere.
About 20 years ago, the first Bitcoins were tradedāa digital currency that was nearly worthless at the time but, as of August 2025, is valued at roughly $100,000 per unit. Bitcoin is the most prominent example of blockchain, a decentralized technology with the potential to act as the ālittle sisterā of artificial intelligence (AI) in sparking the next technological paradigm shift. As the Gartner Hype Cycle illustrates, the short-term impacts of blockchain and AI are often overestimated, while their long-term potential is usually underestimated. The true value lies not in the technologies themselves but in their applications. Globally, thereās a fervent search for applications that can justify the billions invested in these technologies. In short, the money isnāt made with blockchain or AI alone, but with solutions that deliver real value.
The greatest opportunity lies in combining these two technologies: blockchain provides secure, decentralized data management, while AI enables intelligent, adaptive automation. However, finding truly valuable applications is far from easy. Even OpenAI struggled for a long time to identify meaningful use cases for its Large Language Model until ChatGPTāalmost by chanceābecame a breakthrough.
āThe honest answer is that we have no idea,ā Altman replied. āWe have never made any revenue, we have no current plans to make revenue, we have no idea how we may one day generate revenue. We have made a soft promise to investors that āonce weāve built this sort of generally intelligent system, basically we will ask it to figure out a way to generate an investment return for you.ā”
(Sam Altman, 2018)
The success of new technologies depends less on their mere existence and more on intuitive, user-friendly access that immediately demonstrates their value. A prime example is the iPhone. No one demanded it, and no studies recommended developing a touchscreen smartphone. Yet it became a massive success. Its true potential only unfolded when Steve Jobs overcame his resistance to third-party apps, leading to the creation of the App Store. Even the iPhoneās visionary creator initially underestimated its possibilitiesāthe market showed him what was truly possible.
The Datarella team has taken this lesson to heart. In 2023, we launched the MOBIX app as an ambitious ālong shot.ā Drawing on years of experience, we knew that blockchain and AI are still in their infancy and rarely ready for market-ready products. Our question was: How can weācontrary to the trend of rapid, artificially driven growthādevelop a product that meaningfully combines blockchain and AI to deliver real value? The key was a firm commitment: staying true to the vision even in tough times and consistently pursuing the chosen path. This requires backbone, especially when a project like MOBIX is funded entirely from our own resources, without venture capital.
By the end of 2025, MOBIX will have completed its first phase of user growth. Now, weāre entering Phase 2 with the launch of the MOBIX Mobility Marketplace, starting with the āMOBIX Park & Chargeā application. What a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Mobility Marketplace entails, the role Park & Charge plays in it, and how MOBIX leverages blockchain and AI to create value will be explored in our next blog post.