Korean Air has partnered with Swedish DePIN startup Wingbits to integrate encrypted, real-time flight-tracking data into its research on advanced air mobility, including drones, cargo aircraft, and future eVTOL taxis. This marks Wingbits’ first collaboration with a legacy airline and highlights growing interest in decentralized aviation infrastructure.
Under the agreement, Wingbits will provide ADS-B data to Korean Air’s ACROSS air traffic coordination system, covering Incheon FIR, North America, and Europe. The data will help the airline study safe integration of multiple air vehicles in increasingly busy airspace.
Wingbits operates a decentralized network of cryptographically secured ADS-B receivers, incentivizing contributors with tokens for placing hardware in high-value locations. The startup raised $5.6 million in January, led by Bullish Capital, parent company of CoinDesk.
“All aviation relies on this data, yet it was often provided for free while major networks were sold for hundreds of millions with nothing returned to the community,” said co-founder Robin Wingårdh during Korea Blockchain Week.
He added that incentives drive superior coverage:
“Proper rewards encourage contributors to place receivers on rooftops, businesses, and high-demand areas, delivering more than twice the coverage per antenna compared with competitors.”
For Korean Air, the collaboration addresses both current operations and future mobility initiatives. Its R&D team is exploring low-latency, secure data applications to support emerging advanced air mobility networks.
“Flying taxis, cargo drones, and other urban air vehicles are coming, and no existing infrastructure can fully track this combination of aviation and advanced mobility,” Wingårdh noted.
The partnership demonstrates the potential for blockchain-backed networks to underpin the next era of urban air transport, bridging crypto-native technology with mainstream aviation.
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