Blockchain for Smart City Pt.1

Let’s talk about real possibilities

Smart city has become even more popular project with blockchain. How close are we with smart city at this point?

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History of mankind has surged from mere phase of survival through hunting and fishing to its power and influence through abundance and prosperity of civilization. In the middle of it, there has been urban infrastructure in the developmental form of marketplace, town, castle, then what we call now, a city or metropolitan. It is where every elements of civilization live and expand, because it is the center of culture, economics, and survival. In modern era, citizens live in the city to make a living, reside, work, retire, and pass on to next generation. It is the perfect example of human life cycle since its trajectory is clear from birth to growth, then to death. It is where every interaction takes place in the basis of natural instinct and act of human as societal animal by gathering in certain demographic of which eventually become a society. Due to acceleration of population growth and instability of global economy, city became more important lifeline than ever for abundance and prosperity as well as survival. According to UN, urban population will grow annually, with estimation of 68% of global population expected to live in urban areas by 2050. According to World Economic Forum, 80% of global GDP will be produced out of urban areas. By just looking at it, number seems to be much staggering or sound risky. It might sound bit more serious in this way; As much GDP is produced out of mega cities, so is CO2, about 75%. Air pollution is not local issue for certain countries anymore, rather it has become one of the toughest global mission to solve. Quest for clean water has been going for more than a decade, especially for development countries, however water management for drinking and industry became rising issue in majority of the nations as well.

As we can see, global challenges of modern society are already damaging our planet rapidly and extensively. It will only get worse if there is no strategic action taken further. This uprising of numerous issues has been a driving force for smart city initiatives at global scale.

Smart city can be defined as adoption and utilization of advanced technologies and related applications to solve the most demanding and serious challenges such as climate change, extreme weather, energy, natural resources, environmental sustainability, security, crime, mobility, and more of which are considered as rising issues of rapid urbanization with over-population.

Such massive and continuous problems increased awareness and paved the way for more innovative and constructive approach to global solution at larger scale. Tackling these issues directly relates to how we will live in the future. It is about measuring the longevity and executing sustainability. Smart city’s main objective is to improve and deliver better quality of urban lifestyle.

Recent massive storm of blockchain sensation took the entire industry and market by storm and its effect spread out to various industries that never seems to be relevant with cutting-edge technology. Blockchain, along with cryptocurrency, is considered as the most innovative symbol in modern day economy, popularizing terms such as ‘decentralized’ or ‘distributed’ while igniting paradigm shift for equal opportunity of how centralized business and government system will be replaced in beneficial way.

Blockchain is still under development and testing for its conceptual scalability, and smart city will be the toughest challenge that blockchain will ever face until this point.

Nevertheless, blockchain is the key component of complete smart city, and here are the areas that will be innovated by blockchain technology.

Financial services, especially payment and money transfer

Blockchain was most widely adopted for financial sectors such as transfer and remittances. By replacing intermediaries, blockchain can allow P2P direct transfer, making transaction faster than ever for seamless customer experience. Blockchain already successfully provided application for remittance to overseas and money transfers for both sending and receiving to anyone anywhere. Time-stamped block will be proof of transaction data, making it more just like banking transfer at much cheaper fee. As millennial or generation Z are core part of modern labor force, their working culture is more focused on remote access for the job, blockchain payment applications will guarantee their income more transparently powered by its traceability. Benefits does not just apply for employees but also employers.

Transportation and mobility

As smart and micro mobility is slowly taking over the city as go-to option for saving their time, cost, and energy during the commute or other occasions, IoT sensors with blockchain will enhance citizens’ experiences on using transportation or smart mobility as blockchain applications provide payment-in-advance or as-you-go, real-time tracking or checking of public transportation, parking lot for space availability, and micro mobility such as bike or scooter will be easy to find and use by tracking it with blockchain-based app.

Healthcare

Healthcare policies might differ by each country, however, blockchain has been successfully implemented the secure application for healthcare industry by authenticating and securing personal medical record and crypto-based compensation as added value for sharing such sensitive data. Such compensation can be used for other medical services. This type of secured application enabled remote medical services on mobile as doctors can access to app to pre-diagnose patients before making an actual visit to the hospital. It saved time, energy, and cost for both parties.

Energy

One of the core components and goal of smart city is to save the energy and maximize its usage at balanced scale. As micro grid is expected to be applied to each household in smart city for generating their own energy through solar panels while surplus of it can be sold to or shared with other households in need of extra energy for electricity or other. Blockchain is perfect tool for real-time monitoring of energy usage and for payment option for P2P direct transaction for energy purchase within the grid.

Environment

According to recent report by World Economic Forum, air pollution such as micro dust has been one of the biggest threats globally affecting human health such as respiratory system. This has been a decade long and ongoing issue especially in Asia. IoT sensors with blockchain application can be utilized for real-time monitoring and alert when its concentration rate goes beyond safety standard. Blockchain application can also be used for tracking of carbon footprints and natural resource usage. The biggest upside is not only about real-time traceability but more on immutability of such data due to its sensitivity and authenticity by preventing the tampering.

Governance

E-government has simplified administrative process and procedure for both of in-house and citizens. Blockchain-powered government will move way further than that with advancement of smart contract. Smart contract can be applied for transparent online voting, tax filing and collecting process, asset management with tracking of ownership, local currency, and tracking administrative matters by implementing automated process for all of the above.

Blockchain’s biggest strengths are traceability, immutability, and scalability for various components of smart city including government, mobility, energy, healthcare, security, transportation, buildings, farming, and data. With emergence of 5G and adoption of IoT will only accelerate blockchain implementation for smart city.

It is only the matter of time.