FOAM and the Dream to Map the World on Ethereum

While an augmented reality mobile app used to collect funny-looking, digital critters might sound like a silly service to re-architect with blockchain, the developers at ethereum startup FOAM make a compelling case.

FOAM developers want to build a technology that mirrors GPS but is instead an open technology that anyone can contribute to.

During Ethereal, an artsy ethereum conference in New York City in May, the FOAM team demoed their beta product, Spatial Index, which the website calls "a cross between a Bloomberg trading terminal and Google Maps." The map shows all the locations of radio beacons deployed by users, which are represented as smart contracts on the Rinkeby testnet, a copy of the ethereum blockchain used for testing purposes.

Coinbase engineer Jacob Horne is so enthusiastic he called the FOAM product "The base layer for entire new economies." And ConsenSys developer Simon de la Rouviere said that re-reading the whitepaper "Just blows my mind again."

While FOAM is starting with games, the team thinks the technology has potential far beyond this use case.

FOAM has begun working with ethereum-based supply chain startup, Viant, which recently demoed its product in tracking tuna from the waters of Fiji to the plates of Ethereal conference goers.

LPWAN technology, which costs between $1o and $30, allows anyone to contribute to FOAM's map, beaming location information to the ethereum blockchain.

"Deploying a LPWAN, just like a blockchain, is permissionless," the FOAM blog post explaining the Spatial Index says.

According to FOAM co-founder and CTO Kristoffer Josefsson the product is still quite far from the team's grand vision.

Once that's done, they'll run the token sale, and then push FOAM to the ethereum mainnet.