Blockchain for Smart Cities

Dear Colleagues,

After a decade of research and development, there is yet no precise definition for Smart City in the literature or, at least, there is no specific condition under which a city may be defined as smart. By pursuing the evolutionary process that leads towards a smarter city, many projects have been implemented by promoting the pervasive use of technology-based solutions in one or more of the smart city main pillars: Smart mobility, smart environment, smart living, smart people, smart government, and smart economy. However, the wide use of technologies such as urban interconnected sensors, IoT technology, and AI are not able to guarantee that a city becomes intelligent. A city that offers connected and digital services to citizens is not necessarily intelligent or “smart” if the citizens’ quality of life and the overall pillars of the city are not enhanced, according to a holistic and inclusive approach based on sustainable development. Such a sustainable development approach should be able to create citizens’ well-being, economic wealth to boost the private sector and the investments of the involved stakeholders, and to create an overall social and environmental improvement. 

In this scenario, one of the most boosting technologies in the development of both private and public sectors is the Blockchain, which is defined as a distributed ledger able to store information (blocks) across multiple systems securely and to enable peer-to-peer transactions by creating a trustworthy source of ‘truth’ avoiding the so-called “intermediaries of trust”. A wide range of use case applications can be imagined, the Blockchain for Smart Cities being a disruptive technology: Energy and pollution management, improving in the public transportation, security for IoT devices, urban planning, etc.

The Special Issue of the journal Applied Sciences, “Blockchain for Smart Cities”, aims to cover recent advances in the use of Blockchain technology in the development of sustainable and intelligent cities, obtained by researchers, digital innovation managers, and policy-makers responsible for cities’ digital transformation.

Prof. Fabio Orecchini
Prof. Alessandra Pieroni
Guest Editors

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