US Patent Suggests HBAR Could Play Role in Nationwide Road-Charge Systems
A US Department of Transportation patent has referenced Hashgraph-based settlement for digital road-user charging systems. This has led popular market analyst Ayman Mufleh to argue that a framework could eventually serve vehicles paying per-mile charges as electric cars reduce fuel-tax revenue.
The patent describes 'methods and systems for facilitating collection of road user charges using a digital currency based on a distributed ledger technology.' It discusses blockchains, directed acyclic graphs, and Hashgraph-style frameworks as ways to improve scalability and auditability without relying on centralized tolling infrastructure.
According to the patent, vehicles or users would sign smart contracts, transactions would be validated through multiple systems, and settlement occurs through a Hashgraph ledger flow. The Hedera Hashgraph Settlement System and Hedera Consensus Service are named in the filing.