Abstract
Chapter 5 explores the use of distributed ledger technologies in cities to help improve citizen-centric services: land registries, health care, welfare payments, identity, supply chains, and voting. McKinsey analysts predict that by 2020 the number of smart cities will reach 600 worldwide, and 5 years later almost 60% of the world's GDP will be produced in them. Digital technologies could become an engine of economic progress, and Blockchain could be one of those technologies. This connectivity, however, comes at a cost. How will cybersecurity evolve with Web 3.0 and 4.0 technologies to protect cities from cyber-attacks? This chapter introduces how Blockchains may be used to resolve a range of city-based challenges arising from broader global concerns like national population increases, urban density, anthropomorphic climate change, urban pollution and mobility, local and national citizen services, and infrastructure.
TopNational Implementation
Many countries are integrating Blockchains into city services for: increased efficiency, effectiveness and motivating beneficial behavioural change for socioenvironmental benefits. The city transformations detailed below lead the way towards the ‘connect with real understanding of how and what’ shift, represented by the Government and Conversations blocks in the Enabling Shifts Required section of the B4SC Model.
Figure 1.
Enabling Shifts Required; Governments and Conversation
Dubai
In Dubai unmanned trains, automated sensors, flying taxis, solar panels, and wi-fi benches form part of the Dubai Blockchain Strategy’s plans for a 2020 smart metropolis (Magas, 2018). As the authors have discussed in Chapter 3, Dubai plans to be the first country in the world fully operated on the Blockchain (Smart Dubai 2021, n.d). The Smart City program, launched in 2014, involves the phased implementation of more than 545 projects that will change the way residents and visitors of Dubai interact with the city, with approximately 185 proposed projects in the transport sector holding an estimated value of USD $32bn. These include rail ventures, marine plans, and aviation projects. The implementation of a Blockchain system into the urban structure is projected to save about $1.5 billion and 25.1 million man-hours due to increased efficiency in the processing of documents, which is supposed to set government institutions free from queues. Blockchain will be also applied in logistics and storage. This will help create an entire system of smart unmanned trucks for the transport of products or materials.
Key Terms in this Chapter
IoT: The internet of things is the interconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, communicating via the internet.
Cyber-Attack: A malicious attempt to breach a computer network to steal or damage its contents.
Cybersecurity: The protection of electronic data from unauthorised or criminal activity.