The city of Taipei and the IOTA Foundation have recently announced a partnership that plans to make Taipei into a smart city.
The city plans to use distributed registries and “Block-less” technology, as opposed to Blockchain, for a number of projects.
David Sønstebø, co-founder of the IOTA Foundation, recently expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership by stating, “This is proof that our next-generation technology is ready for use in real life and is more than just theory. Of course, we’re just scratching the surface of what the IOTA could have on the world. The future isn’t only smart cities, but a smart world.”
Building the Future
As a reminder, the IOTA Foundation is a non-profit company based out of Germany. They are the creators of the cryptocurrency known as the IOTA, which is ranked as 13th in terms of its market cap. What makes the IOTA original is the fact that its transactions are passed through its connected computers and then it remunerates the connected computers in its network. The protocol that will be used in Taipei is known as Tangle. This protocol does not rely on Blockchain technology and does not use the traditional method of mining. Also, all IOTA transactions are completely free of charge.
Taipei’s Information and Technology Commissioner, Wei-Bin Lee, said the partnership with IOTA is only one of the city’s many projects that are planned for the near future.
BiiLabs plans to participate in the city’s projects and is also working to integrate Tangle technology for the use of citizenship cards. These cards will be used to protect the country’s citizens from identity theft, to stop electoral fraud and to store personal medical information.
With another partner, Realtek, Taipei is already successfully conducting another experimental project. They have deployed about 150 “Airboxes” around the city which collect and share air quality data. The city is planning to integrate Tangle technology into these Airboxes with an incentive fee, paid in IOTA, for citizens with low carbon footprints.
A Race Towards Blockchain Technology
Taipei’s smart city project is not the first of its kind. In Dubai, initiatives are already underway to launch more than twenty applications that use distributed registries. Also, Blockchains LLC’s recent purchase of more than 300 square kilometers of land in Tahoe Reno is intended for the construction of a smart city using Blockchain technology.
Commissioner Wei-Bin Lee said the city remains open to any proposals that might contribute to the success of its ambitious project.
