The practical use of blockchain, which you can feel. Countries that implement big data and Internet of things. TSRPAY Follow Jun 20, 2018 · 7 min read

Have you ever heard of cities where traffic light sensors “communicate” with weather stations and the lights for lighting football fields transfer data to lockers in the locker rooms? A couple of decades ago, such a scenario could appear only in fantastic works, and now the concept of “smart city” is considered by the mayors of cities.

Internet of things (IoT), big data and blockchain — this is the recipe for the “smart city”. A city where energy consumption is optimized, traffic congestion is forecasted or the amount of fresh vegetables is distributed to all the city’s shops so that every resident could get the necessary vitamins.

Some countries have already approached the implementation of an ideal allocation of resources, and the other ones are going to do it. Supporting these countries, each of us can begin to learn the future. The future, which will turn into the present tomorrow.

What is happening now?

Estonia

The blockchain was used in Estonia before it became mainstream, and even before Satoshi Nakamoto invented bitcoin.

The reason was the cyber-attack of 2007, when public service websites and the government disconnected due to heavy DDoS attacks. This forced Estonia to reconsider its attitude to ensuring data security and turn to what we call blockchain now.

Since 2012, the blockchain has been used in the national health, judicial, legislative, security and commercial systems of Estonia. The technology has already gone beyond the limits of experiments and has reached mass use. From this moment, citizens have the opportunity to check out medical professionals or civil servants who have scanned a medical card, insurance or driver’s license. Any official who applies to personal data without permission can be held accountable.

United Arab Emirates

Today Dubai is one of the most progressive cities in digital form in the world. With drone trains, automatic sensors, flying taxis, solar panels and Wi-Fi benches, it probably has everything a futurist needs.

Dubai ranks first in the world thanks to the government-supported Smart City program. Smart City program, launched in 2014, provides for the phased implementation of more than 545 projects that will change the way people interact with Dubai to make the city the first blockchain intellectual metropolis by 2020. Local authorities plan to translate the entire document flow into an electronic form, with the support of such giants as Google, Uber, Amazon, IBM.

According to forecasts, the introduction of the blockchain system into the city structure will save about 1.5 billion dollars and 25.1 million person-hours, including that it will get rid of queues. Blockchain in logistics and storage will help to create a whole system of intelligent unmanned trucks for the transport of products or materials.

China

In January 2013, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development officially announced the first list of national pilot cities of Smart Cities.

The first city of the future should be Yinchuan, where they have already abandoned traditional payments. Now, instead of tickets, passes and documents, it’s enough just to show your face!

On April 24, 2018, the National Control Office of China discussed the use of technology to address the challenges inherent in a centralized storage infrastructure. It is planned that each separate office and accredited auditor will be assigned a separate node that will help reduce the burden on the government, while it will have a chain of blocks, in which each transaction will be recorded.

As in the case of Estonia, the blockchain in China has become a solution to the security problem. In 2014, one of the largest banks in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered, lost nearly $ 200 million as a result of credit fraud. Scammers used double invoices for the same product to get money from banks. To prevent financial fraud, Standard Chartered, together with the government agency in Singapore, used blockchain technology and developed a unique cryptographic hash for each invoice. The company managed to create an electronic register of invoices, which uses a parallel platform on the bitcoin blockchain. This ensures that no double transactions are performed, and banks do not provide money for counterfeit invoices.

USA

The state of Delaware was the first to announce the Delaware Blockchain initiative in 2016. This comprehensive program, initiated by former Governor Jack Markell, is designed to stimulate the use and development of blockchain technologies and smart contracts in both the private and public sectors of the state.

The authorities officially named the electronic transactions recorded in the blockchain as the data which can be checked, and the bill was signed in order to legalize blockchain transactions for accounting and other business records for local companies.

Despite the change of government, which led to slowdowns in the mass adoption of the blockchain, Symbiont CEO Mark Smith, whose company Symbiont in partnership with the ex-administration is transferring state archives to the blockchain, is optimistic about the future implementation of the technology.

In 2017, the state announced the Illinois Blockchain Initiative, which calls on a consortium of government agencies to cooperate in exploring the innovations presented in distributed register technology.

West Virginia is launching an experimental version of voting on the basis of the blockchain to conduct voting on mobile devices in 2018 in regional elections.

And let’s not forget about New York, whose Microgrid project is being developed specifically for private homes with solar panels. It is assumed that contracts based on Ethereum will help to use solar electricity optimally — neighbors will be able to exchange solar energy with each other, depending on which side of the street is currently better illuminated.

Alibaba Cloud & Waltonchain signed an agreement on strategic cooperation aimed at using blockchain technology in the field of smart cities. The results of the partnership are designed to address the problem of limited resources and services caused by the rapidly growing population of megacities.

Switzerland

In 2016 in Swiss in canton Zug some municipal services started taking bitcoin as payment. Many IT entrepreneurs began to consider Zug the informal capital of the “Crypto valley” in Switzerland, and in the summer of 2018 there will be a trial municipal vote with the use of blockchain. With the help of voting, the authorities plan to test the digital ID (eID) system, launched in November 2017, which will allow citizens to vote with their mobile devices.

What they plan to do

India

The state authorities of Kerala in India are going to use blockchain technology to control food production and supply.

The state government issued a statement according to which technology can also be tested in the field of crop insurance. Flooding and famine lead to losses that can be insured and insurance services see the opportunity to establish the real causes of crop losses in this method.

This is not the first time when Kerala has noticed the technology of the distributed registry. The state is the birthplace of the so-called “blockchain academy”. Students receive appropriate education and learn to introduce technology into the banking and healthcare systems.

Slovenia

The BTC City shopping centre in the capital of Slovenia Ljubljana claims the title of “Bitcoin City”. More than 500 retail outlets accept the first cryptocurrency here.

Now you can pay for services and goods only in bitcoins, but in the future, Bitcoin Cash and the company’s own token will be added.

In the near future in BTC City an analytical blockchain center will be, as well as the largest, according to the managers of the complex, installation for mining in Slovenia.

In the BTC City they intend to turn the complex into the world’s first ecosystem using cryptocurrencies, blockchain, artificial intelligence, as well as virtual and augmented reality technologies.

Germany

German energy company RWE is working on the creation of a network of charging stations for electric vehicles based on Ethereum. Drivers will be able to monitor the charging process using a special application, and the registry on the blockchain will be responsible for calculating the energy expended, making payments and identifying users.

Australia and Japan

The Australian government has announced a grant of $ 8 million for a blockchain project to create “smart utilities”, and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) plans to use this technology to prevent a recurrence of the disaster in 2011, when a radiation leak in Fukushima Daiichi NPP caused a power failure due to earthquakes.

What to expect?

Imagine what else could happen to the world in a few years, if modern technologies, such as the Internet of things and blockchain, are already unifying. Urban transport will be controlled by robots, which will reduce the number of accidents, unmanned aircraft will no longer need dispatchers, and shops will stop throwing away tons of expired products.

Blockchain is one of the keys to our future. Its value is not only convenience, but safety too. With the development and implementation of blockchain technology, cities and countries are developing themselves. By embarking on the path of the digital future, we will be able to see qualitative changes in the social, economic and environmental aspects of life soon. Imagine life in the city without giant traffic jams, piles of papers, documentation errors and double transactions. Look around — maybe the city which you live in now is one of them.