Taipei City is raising its fintech profile and will be powered by IOTA’s distributed ledger technology. Taiwan’s capital is partnering with Berlin nonprofit IOTA Foundation for its IoT-driven Tangle technology as well as BiiLabs, a blockchain startup, for its transformation into an app-driven smart city, one that IOTA’s co-founder Dominik Schiener says will affect voter fraud.

Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je recently traveled to Warsaw in a trip whose mission included a focus on smart cities, and this partnership with IOTA is evidence of his commitment to the technology.

IOTA’s distributed ledger technology is unique because it uses a proprietary protocol dubbed Tangle, which is famous for having no blocks and no miners. Tangle is being used in the first IOTA/Tapei project app and is known for Internet of Things (IOT) applications ranging from smart watches to “feeless micropayment-based electric vehicle charging.”

The partners are exploring ways in which IOTA’s technology can be integrated into the smart city to bolster data integrity and trust in public service and beyond. Taipei City joins the likes of participants including Microsoft that have turned to IOTA’s data marketplace (though as IOTA stressed, the Microsoft relationship is not a partnership.) IOTA says the marketplace “showcases” the IOTA protocol and flaunts how “micropayment-based business models will function in the future.”

Of the partnership with Taipei City, IOTA Foundation co-founder David Sønstebø said,

“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.”

Tangle Tech

The maiden project to test the mettle of the Taipei City project is citizen cards equipped with TangleID, designed to protect locals from identity theft and voter fraud as well as medical-record data.

Other areas are being explored as well, including healthcare and inter-city data exchanges.

Another project that is already off the ground, Airbox, monitors the air quality of the locals. It’s already in use in homes and across 150 Taipei City elementary schools. The device “collects and shares air-quality data online,” and it’s moving to Tangle technology. With Tangle, Airbox will “integrate incentivized payment in IOTA,” perhaps as a reward for maintaining a low carbon footprint.

Another smart city focused on the blockchain is Dubai, which reportedly is preparing to unveil nearly two dozen blockchain apps that are currently in pilot form across various agencies ranging from infrastructure to education, to healthcare. Dubai already uses blockchain tech for land registries.

The IOTA Coin

In addition to the foundation, IOTA is also a top-10 cryptocurrency with a current market cap of $4.8 billion. The digital coin has taken it on the chin with the other leading cryptocurrencies of late, and is off another 11.5% at the time of this writing.

Iota advanced more than 460% last year after entering the market in June on Bitfinex.

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