1) What problems can Blockchain solve for smart cities?
Many people are touting blockchain as a potential solution for many of the challenges associated with city governance and operation, such as corruption, security threats, inefficiency in municipal services and bureaucracy. Blockchain can enable cities to establish a uniform database and platform with interconnected government records and services, including real estate, medical, transportation, population records, taxation and more.
2) Why do smart cities need Blockchain?
With the rise of IoT and the digital age, the citizens expect a certain level f services in the city. In addition, as cities population grows, along with the efficiency in the private sector, the governments need to catch up on their end. As threats of terrorist, fraud malicious attacks increase, cities need new ways of storing and sharing personal information of the residents, as well as a way to protect their residents from such attacks. As residents strive for transparency, cities may increase resident participation in governance and other city processes via blockchain. Finally as the prices of natural resources increase, cities can help conserve and create a marketplace for unused or saved natural resources such as energy and water, via blockchain.
3) What are the top use cases for Blockchain in smart cities?
The city of Dubai put its land registry on blockchain It also uses blockchain to track imports and exports. The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is running a pilot for land records on the blockchain as well. The government of Estonia gave its citizens control over their own personal records using blockchain. Now the residents can decide who receives access to which parts of their identity, e.g. transfer ot medical data to a medical facility, and anyone gaining undue access to the data will be identified and persecuted. A similar project in Taipei provides a blockchain identity to citizens in order to protect them from identity theft and voter fraud.
4) What are the top companies using blockchain to build smart Cities?
- eMudhra – eMudhra is a licensed Certifying Authority (CA) of India issuing digital signature certificates. eMudhra allows users to buy Digital Signatures
- Digital Town – DigitalTown, Inc. (DGTW) powers Smart Cities to succeed in the Digital Age. It provides turn-key hosted solutions to power “Digital Towns“,