Solana-Based Ridesharing App Teleport Shuts Down, Blaming Market Immaturity for Decentralized Ridesharing

Solana-based ridesharing app Teleport, which aimed to compete with Uber and Lyft, said it's shutting down due to a lack of market readiness for decentralized ridesharing.

Solana-based ridesharing app Teleport is shutting down after failing to gain traction in the market for decentralized ridesharing.

“This is not the outcome we had hoped for,” Teleport said in a statement on its website and in a Jan. 30 X post. “We're sorry we didn't find a way to make this business work!”

Teleport engineer “Chase” posted on X that “the rideshare market isn't ready for a decentralized protocol just yet” and said the move to shutter the app “was difficult but necessary.”

Teleport founder Paul Bohm said the startup, which raised $9 million in October 2022 and launched publicly in June, was “the hardest thing I've ever tried doing.”

The company said it will share a more “detailed analysis” of what led to its closure in the future, but for now will focus on winding down and will support users to off-ramp their USD Coin (USDC) balances and private keys until Feb. 28.

Teleport attempted to differentiate its model from Uber by taking a 15% cut on each ride — compared to Uber's 25% to 30% — while drivers could choose between accepting USDC or fiat through Apple Pay.

Teleport claimed its rides were consistently cheaper than Uber's and reported having completed 1,321 rides between its launch on June 1 and Nov. 24, with 13,834 users signed up.

It said 178 drivers were online during the week of Nov. 11 to 17, which marked more than a threefold increase from the previous week.

New York City and Austin, Texas, were two of the most common cities where Teleport's services were used before its closure.

Teleport's 41 Apple app store reviews show some of its lowest-rating users complained that drivers were never available.

Teleport was the mobile client for the TRIP Rideshare Protocol, which is owned by the Decentralized Engineering Corporation.

Decentralized ridesharing apps have attempted to unseat Uber since at least September 2016, when Arcade City supposedly launched but failed to attract a single ride within the first two weeks.