Sony Corporation has developed the Blockchain Common Database (BCDB) platform that makes use of blockchain technology for Mobility as a Service (Maas), a next-generation mobility service integrating multiple transportation systems. Multi-modal MaaS integrates means of transportation such as trains, buses, taxis, car sharing, on demand mobility services and rental bicycles using information technology and cloud technology to provide users with information regarding optimal routes to desired destinations and recommended transportation means and services.

It presents details including the route, required time and total cost, and covers the entire process from booking to clearing. Independently developed by Sony, BCDB features high-speed data processing to enable more than 7 million users per day to record and share anonymized travel history and revenue allocation.

Sony participated in the Blockchain Challenge Program, a MaaS initiative proposed by the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in 2019, and conducted a verification test of BCDB until the end of March 2020. Among the participants, only Sony's BCDB was able to meet the ministry's required specifications, making it the industry's first project to successfully realize the recording and sharing of large-scale movement history and revenue allocation by using blockchain technology for MaaS.

Blockchain technology is used to create networks where programs and information are difficult to destroy or alter, and is well-suited for sharing and managing data and sensitive information. BCDB has made it possible to record and share information in a distributed ledger of the blockchain among various Transportation Operators, Transaction Processors and MaaS Service Provides involved in MaaS, thereby making it possible to utilize information with reliability and transparency and deploy it as a service.

The Sony Group is expanding the application of blockchain technology in diverse areas, such as the development of authentication, sharing and authority management systems for education data in the education field, and the development of a digital content rights information processing system in the field of entertainment. It is also engaged in the development of virtual currency hardware wallet technology using IC cards to provide convenience and security of private key management for all blockchain related services.