Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei will be rolling out IOTA’s Tangle-powdered blockchain-based digital identification system later this year, according to BiiLabs Co-Founder Jim Huang. The launch of the Digital Citizen Card will see IOTA’s unique Tangle consensus method and platform used to establish an entirely new digital identification system.

The Digital Citizen Card emerged from a partnership established between the Germany-based IOTA foundation and the municipality of Taipei city in January 2018 as the first of a series of projects aiming to establish Taipei as a “Smart City Living Lab.”

To comply with context of #GDPR, #TangleID is adapting uPort components into $IOTA network for self-sovereign identity management on which #Taipei Smart City Project Management Office (TPMO) would build several applications. Look forward to mass deployment this year. pic.twitter.com/oeoRS2J5GI — Jim Huang (@jserv) June 13, 2018

The announcement heralds the first time blockchain technology will be used in the state management of identity. Several other projects are currently underway that will see blockchain technology implemented in citizen identification — such as OmiseGo’s collaboration with the Thai Government to create a blockchain-based national digital ID eKYC portal — but Taipei’s Digital Citizen Card is set to become the world’s first real-world implementation of DLT-based ID.

Taipei May Become Blockchain-Powered Smart City

IOTA’s collaboration with the Taipei government includes assistance from BiiLabs, a Taipei-based distributed ledger technology development platform that currently works extensively with the IOTA project, creating TangleID based digital forensics systems and settlement services.

Taipei municipality and the IOTA Foundation teams up on Taipei's Smart City Living Lab initiative together with @biilabsrocks to make Taiwan's capital a leading smart city.#IOTA #smartcity pic.twitter.com/mS8M0O5Kxa — IOTA (@iotatoken) January 30, 2018

In addition to establishing a blockchain-based ID system, IOTA technology is also being used in Taipei to maintain air quality. The Air Box project will see palm-sized air sensor complete with humidity, pollution, light, and temperature detectors installed in homes across Taipei, sharing air quality data via the Tangle and incentivizing participation via IOTA incentivization.

Wei-bin Lee, the Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology in Taipei City Government, commented on the future of Taipei and blockchain technology implementation:

“IOTA is one of the innovative players in the cryptocurrency world because of its unique technology. With Taipei City always thinking ahead and with IOTA’s technology, this partnership is a strategic move to usher in the era of smart cities to the citizens of Taipei. We welcome the IOTA Foundation to Taipei City and are excited to embark on the future together.”

The Tangle-powdered Digital Citizen Card won’t just be used for the elimination of identity theft and voter fraud, however. If successful, the project could be expanded in scope to encompass secure identity-based data sharing across other public service domains such as medical history tracking.

IOTA Foundation co-founder David Sønstebø highlighted the flexibility and readiness of the IOTA solution at the announcement of the Taipei Smart City partnership earlier this year:

“We are so excited about teaming up with Taipei City. It proves that our next-generation technology is ready for real-world use cases and is more than just a theory. We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of the effect IOTA can have on making the world of IoT ever-more connected and paving the way for not just smart cities, but a smart world.”

IOTA Real-World Use Cases Multiply

BiiLabs co-founder Jim Huang’s announcement of the imminent launch of Taipei’s Tangle-based ID solution isn’t the only incursion the IOTA project has made into the real world recently.

The IOTA Foundation recently demonstrated a Proof-of-Concept for over-the-air vehicle software updates at the CEBIT 2018 expo in Germany.

Finally got to see the #Volkswagen booth with #IOTA as the enabler for the mobility use cases. Really proud how far we've come over the last few years and months. Very excited how much further we will go as a foundation, community and ecosystem. pic.twitter.com/hOJ7RVSSVl — Dominik Schiener (@DomSchiener) June 12, 2018

Earlier this year, IOTA demonstrated further progress in the development of an IOTA-driven machine economy with a real-world implementation of IOTA-based smart smart vehicle charging stations.

The IOTA project has even captured recognition from the UN, with the United Nations Office for Project Services recently signing a memorandum of understanding in New York and Berlin to explore how IOTA technology can be used to increased UNOPS operational efficiency.

UNOPS Special Advisor for UN Engagement and Blockchain Technology Yoshiyuki Yamamoto commented on the agreement in a recent Q&A session, stating that the IoTA project is — to UNOPS — the most promising blockchain technology available:

“UNOPS always carefully vets its collaborators and partners, and this was no exception. We did our homework, conducted due diligence processes and came to the conclusion that the [IOTA] technology and the team was promising enough to move forward with.”

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