While blockchain is often considered alongside the financial benefits it can offer governments and businesses, it will also revolutionise how we live by enabling secure, transparent and efficient systems within our urban spaces.

Governments and city planners worldwide are considering how blockchain can be included in smart city projects alongside other technologies such as IoT and IPv6. This formed part of a panel discussion at the recent Technology of Tomorrow Conference in Warsaw, Poland between Marcin Rzetecki (Managing Director at The Polish Blockchain Association) and Katarzyna Łaziuk (Deputy Mayor of Minsk Mazowiecki).

Łaziuk began the presentation by explaining the different ways her local government is working towards blockchain adoption as part of their drive towards becoming a smart city alongside the BMW Foundation.

What does it mean to be a smart city?

Located in Eastern Poland, Minsk Mazowiecki is a town of approximately 40,000 residents located 20 kilometres from the city limits of Warsaw and 38 kilometres from Warsaw’s centre.

Speaking on how she plans to transform the area, she noted that a ‘smart city’ goes beyond digital technologies and includes everything from transportation, heating systems and waste disposal. There is also a critical social element, including a more responsive administration and public safety.

She added that over the last two years, her team has been working with the Human Smart Cities Project to offer free public transport, LED lighting, a new heat and power plant, and a rain garden.

The Minsk Mazowiecki Blockchain City Project

Łaziuk noted that the Minsk Mazowiecki Blockchain City Project forms part of the wider smart city project and aims to develop digital competencies around the Internet of Things, Blockchain and application development.

She added that she and her team are currently conducting a series of webinars with experts in the space, with the goal of developing action plans to improve the city’s urban spaces. ‘Every city has to develop its own smart identity. We have to listen to our residents, and if something doesn’t work, we have to let it go.’

Rzetecki gave an example of one such project which he and his team are working on, called BAIOT. The project allows students at six primary schools to trade plastic caps (for recycling purposes) in return for NFT tokens, which are stored in web3 wallets.

The caps are placed into a container which is tracked by an IoT device and an attached mobile application which shows how many tokens each school has. After three weeks, the tokens are exchanged for trees – directly benefiting the environment. Notably, this entire system is built on the BSV blockchain, which acts as a database and as the ‘connective tissue’ for all of these technologies.

The future of smart cities and blockchain

The BAIOT project is just one example of how blockchain technology can help benefit governments in their plans to develop smart cities. Other potential use cases include:

• Data Security and Privacy: The BSV Blockchain’s immutable nature can enhance data security and privacy in smart cities. It can provide a secure platform for storing and managing sensitive data collected from various sources, such as sensors, IoT devices, and citizen interactions.

• Transparent and Trustworthy Systems: The BSV Blockchain enables transparent and auditable transactions by creating a distributed ledger that records all interactions. This transparency enhances trust among stakeholders, such as government entities, businesses, and citizens. It can help reduce corruption, fraud, and data manipulation in various aspects of smart cities, including governance, financial transactions, and service delivery.

• Efficient Supply Chain Management: The BSV Blockchain can optimise supply chain management in smart cities by providing end-to-end visibility and traceability. It enables secure and transparent tracking of goods, ensuring that products are genuine, and reducing the risk of counterfeit or illegal items entering the supply chain.

• Energy Management and Grid Optimisation: Blockchain can facilitate peer-to-peer energy trading and enable efficient energy management in smart cities. Through smart contracts with energy platforms, consumers can directly trade energy with each other, promoting renewable energy adoption, reducing costs, and optimising energy distribution.

• Citizen Participation and Engagement: Blockchain can foster citizen participation and engagement in decision-making processes. Through voting systems built on blockchain, citizens can securely cast their votes, ensuring transparency, and integrity, and reducing the potential for electoral fraud.