Infotech in Global Economy- The portfolio project

MASTERING BLOCKCHAIN 2

Research Paper: Mastering Blockchain

Blockchain-based sharing services: What blockchain technology can contribute to smart cities

Manchoopaporn Boonchoo

Department of Computer and Information Technology, University of The Cumberlands

ITS 832: InfoTech in a Global Economy

Dr. Segun Odion

March 12, 2021

Summary of the article “Blockchain-based sharing services: What blockchain technology can contribute to smart cities.”

According to Sun, Yan & Zhang (2016), the human, technology, and organizations conceptual framework has integrated to create a blockchain-based network of how resources are shared in recognized "smart cities." A substantial global population is currently living in the urban areas, and more people are intended to move into these urban areas in the future. Therefore, the urban areas are experiencing complicated living conditions due to increased human activities that cause pollution. As such, major cities worldwide have faced complex difficulties when trying to improve the quality of life for their citizens. Technological influence has created a need for "smart cities" to promote the cities' levels of technological connectivity, knowledge workforce in humans, and digital inclusion in organizations (Sun, Yan & Zhang, 2016). Therefore, the level at which urban areas become smart is based on its innovative application of information and communication technology in line with support for communal resource sharing. These are the emerging blockchain technologies that promote the growth of smart cities.

A blockchain-based resource sharing in a city revolves around governance, living conditions, natural resource utilization, human capital, and economic sustainability. Blockchain technology, therefore, works in the integration of humans, technology, and organizations. These features of blockchain technology contribute to the development of smart cities (Sun, Yan, & Zhang, 2016). For instance, real-time information sharing in a city ensures a generation of smart citizens who can share information about available underutilized resources. However, they need to be digitally connected for efficient sharing of information between humans and organizations. As such, the blockchain model of resource sharing is identified as a central element that creates human relationships and prompts trust. The economic productivity of the city thus relies on the developed blockchain model that becomes an alternative that improves organizations' productivity by lowering the cost of operation while at the same time facilitates enhanced means of service sharing. The model has since established sharing services technology that is democratic for both humans and their organizations. In such a way, a smart city is developed within which humans' living conditions are improved as the state of production is increased.

The Internet of Things (IoT) described the interconnections enabled by smart devices for purposes of collecting information when making crucial decisions (Panarello et al., 2018). However, technological advances have influenced the ecosystem by creating inherent vulnerabilities that affect information confidentiality and privacy. As such, the researcher developed a blockchain solution as a security design intended to overcome these limitations resulting from using the internet. Blockchain has been used to provide internet users with authenticity and privacy while performing authorized or automated transactions. Besides, Blockchain has facilitated transparency; thus, trust relationships help solve the shortcoming of the IoT. The article hence, affirms the applicability of blockchain resource sharing techniques to create smart cities across the world. The technological elements have ensured that internet users enjoy the highest levels of data integrity, and this could be used in the operationalization of smart infrastructures that are intrinsically secure. Smart cities can move from the conventional normative model to the beneficial security guaranteed network system. Accordingly, the world’s economy stands to benefit from improved nature of technology, blockchain resource sharing, by influencing how transactions and business operations are made. Hence, an ecosystem that is cumulatively sustained and retrieved from implication of poor environmental treatment.

References

Panarello, A., Tapas, N., Merlino, G., Longo, F., & Puliafito, A. (2018). Blockchain and IoT integration:

A systematic survey. Sensors, 18(8), 2575. https://doi.org/10.3390/s18082575

Sun, J., Yan, J., & Zhang, K. Z. (2016). Blockchain-based sharing services: What blockchain technology can contribute to smart cities. Financial Innovation, 2(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40854-016-0040-y