Last year’s Experian hack, ongoing vote box tampering and rampant environmental hazards are due for massive corrections. Smart cities are the future, with enough functionality to reduce both physical and digital harm.
Taipei
IOTA is partnering with Taipei, Taiwan to become one of the first smart cities with applications like the TangleID citizen card based on IOTA’s Tangle, a distributed ledger technology. They’re designed to make identity theft obsolete and to vaporize voter fraud. They can also be used to provide medical record information and verify one’s identity for government-related services, like social security.
Airbox is another smart city venture, a joint effort by Edimax, Realtek, Asus, and Academia Sinica, LASS and Taipei City. The technology creates “palm-sized air sensors that detect temperature, humidity, light, and pollution. Installed in citizens homes, as well as in 150 Taipei City elementary schools, Airbox is collecting and sharing air quality data online, making it one of the most comprehensive environmental sensor networks in the world. In cooperation with BiiLabs, the Airbox data will be put on the Tangle, in order to integrate incentivized payment in IOTA. This will enable a real-time air pollution monitoring with IOTA’s technology utilized by all the PM2.5 stations in Taiwan.”
London
Blockchain-based smart city technology underpins Smart.London, the latest online initiative by DigitalTown for Londoners to manage shared ownership of city cooperatives. As of February 6, residents can claim free ownership stakes of the Smart.London city platform. Known as CityShares, they are limited to 10 shares per legal resident of the Greater London area, which was last estimated at 8,869,898. Unclaimed CityShares are also available for purchase while they last.
To grow the Smart.London ecosystem, London merchants are able sign up for free storefronts without service fees or requirements for a conventional bank account or merchant account. Merchants will pay a low commission at point of sale. Verified merchants will have the option of redeeming sale proceeds to a variety of outlets, as well as major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Dubai
Smart Dubai won last year’s prestigious City Project Award for the Dubai Blockchain Strategy, selected from 308 projects representing 58 countries. Today it signed TM Forum’s Smart City Manifesto, pledging commitment to smart platforms that can manage the vast reservoir of city data. According to the announcement, “The Manifesto comprises 10 principles that signatories adhere to as they develop their smart city policies, strategies and projects, pledging to optimize their platforms to: enable services that improve the quality of life in cities, benefiting residents and the environment; to bring together both public and private stakeholders in digital ecosystems; support sharing-economy principles and the circular economy agenda; provide ways for local start-ups and businesses to innovate and thrive; enforce the privacy and security of confidential data; and inform political decisions while offering mechanisms for residents to make their voices heard.”
Dubai aims to eliminate the bureaucracy of paper by 2022, by pledging that no employee or customer will need to print any paper documents. Dubbed the “Dubai Paperless Strategy“, the goal is a cornerstone of Smart Dubai to create a paperless government, eliminating over one billion pieces of paper annually. Several sectors are currently running pilot blockchain projects, including the Dubai Land Department, Dubai Municipality, Dewa and the Department of Naturalisation and Residency Dubai. Dubai Customs, Dubai Trade and government-owned ICT firm Dutech have partnered with IBM, extending Dubai’s entire economy onto the blockchain.
