Cities are now following the lead of their enterprise cohorts in deploying applications that can take advantage of blockchain technology. Procurement is one blockchain solution area where cities are seeing numerous deployments. There are many other applications that can leverage blockchain, such as connected asset management. Blockchains are ideal for managing access to and tracking usage of assets. Other opportunities to utilize blockchain include budget oversight, tax collection and assessment, permit compliance and verification as well numerous other forms of regulatory compliance. The challenge for most cities is defining the specific use cases and determining the ROI metrics.
Picture this: a cool new technology captures the imagination. Public and private sector leaders rush to pledge to embrace and deploy this technology systematically within their companies, countries and cities. A few leaders make huge investments, but most promises turn out to be more hype than reality. And then, after all the hype collapses, said technology matures and organically (or eventually) finds its way into these organisations and governments.
No clever and newly emerging technology is immune from the effects of the hype cycle. However, having been through the cycle several times with other technologies, now is the time in the technology adoption cycle to start think strategically instead of tactically. And here lies the opportunity for cities that want to become smarter through blockchain.
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