Analyst Insight: Blockchain Use in Smart Cities

Smart cities programs and projects are expanding worldwide, creating environments that can evaluate and incubate emerging technologies. Guidehouse Insights defines a smart city as “characterized by the integration of technology into a strategic approach to improving citizen well-being, environmental sustainability, and economic prosperity.” Smart cities take advantage of innovations in digitization and automation to deliver services to their citizens quickly, efficiently, and securely.

One such innovation is blockchain technology, which can bring authenticity of information to be validated through its decentralized structure; the process includes no central authority or human error. It can also provide a trustless database and system in which stakeholders can access data they need, while the data remains secure. In a smart city, these attributes can produce benefits for everything from document provenance (e.g., public land ownership or private health records) to cybersecurity, transportation, and transactive energy.

Programs and pilots are emerging that demonstrate tangible applications for blockchain technology in the municipal structure. Based on findings from the Smart City Tracker 3Q22, this report reviews the current market outlook and delves into three case studies that illustrate a variety of blockchain use cases in the smart city.