How Blockchain Can Empower Smart Cities
Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system, most commonly used for transferring cryptocurrency. Blockchain enables network participants to exchange data with a high degree of reliability and transparency without the need for a centralized administrator. It is a system based on chains of data blocks that, once published, cannot be modified. The application of this technology could be hugely beneficial when it comes to smart cities solutions.
Why use Blockchain for Smart Cities?
Smart cities have their own challenges, and sophisticated technology is required to address them. To meet the demands of smart city development, the storage, handling, and transfer of data in a smart way is the need of the hour. Blockchain provides a decentralized way to store data in the form of digital ledgers without third-party intervention. This reduces the burden of storing large datasets on a single machine by distributing them to multiple devices. Blockchains can help to put smart cities on the map by providing improved transparency, efficient supply management, and traceability.
What can Blockchain Technology be Used for in a Smart city?
- Smart Payments – Facilitate all municipal payments on a blockchain based solution, including city programs, assistance, welfare, payroll, etc.
- Identity – Latest decentralized Identity Management systems use blockchain to provide a secure mechanism for storing and validating user identities, thereby reducing identity thefts and related frauds.
- Transportation Management – Use of blockchain to remove the rent-seekers in the ridesharing economy (Uber, etc.). This enables a truly p2p platform for transportation.
- Smart Energy – Create a more resilient power grid by using a blockchain-powered energy market. This removes middlemen and allows individuals to create, buy, sell, and trade energy while retaining value.
- Government Services – Smart contracts can be used for digitizing citizen rights and identification, transparent voting, tax, tracking ownership of assets, removing paper, and automating bureaucratic processes.
- Waste management – Improve efficiencies of the entire waste management process by using IoT sensors and AI prediction modelling. This can be seen in Smart City’s smart bin.
Blockchain has the potential to create countless smart networks and grids, altering how we do everything from voting and building credit to receiving energy. In many ways, it could be a crucial component of what is needed to circumvent outdated systems and build long-lasting solutions for cities.
Shaping the Cities of Tomorrow…Today
We have found ourselves in that generation-defining moment — electric car companies are on the up, oil companies are on the down, and we see significant investment going into emerging technologies. Smart City is leading the shift towards cities of the future by using smart technology to improve public safety, energy efficiency, sustainability, and overall quality of life. We use smart devices to capture and report real-time data around how we move around our cities. The work that we do and the smart city technologies that we provide are fast becoming essential to communities that use them to transform the way they live and work. Get in touch with us today to learn more about what we do.