Page 69 - U4SSC Blockchain for smart sustainable cities

5.1 The situation of blockchain for cities

The cases described in this report underscore cities initiatives from different countries: Russia, The
Netherlands, Italy, Georgia and Spain. The case of land registry from Georgia is a central government
use-case; however, it does provide interesting learning outcomes for blockchain initiatives for local
public service and government.

Table 1 (Appendix 2) provides an overview of the general context of B4C use-cases describing the status
of the project, city or community, the level of governance, the stakeholders involved in the initiative,
transparency, privacy and the governance model.

(1) Status of the project

Most of the use-cases studied confirm that blockchain applications are emergent or at an early stage of
development in the smart city context as just 20 per cent have an implemented solution. These findings
are consistent throughout the practice in the public sector. The major part of the proof of concept
(POCs) is in its initial stages, and few pilot projects and prototypes have demonstrated blockchain
feasibility or practical applications. The majority of adopters have mainly been experimenting with
blockchain in an attempt to understand better, rather than to monetize the technology. Practitioners
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and experts consider that the public services are proposing advanced use-cases of blockchain. However,
it is important to shed light on the type of transformation that is planned in the project.

(2) Government level

Among the blockchain technology applications for government and public institutions, 39 per cent
started at the federal level, and 23 per cent at the national government level, and all the other cases are
developed locally. The data showed that for most of the cases, even though they are deployed at the
local level, the funding and investment and the innovation came dominantly from the regional, federal
or national-level. Minimal number of initiatives were kick-started completely by the local stakeholders.

(3) The main stakeholders

Seventy per cent of the cases involve the creation of public and private partnerships (PPP) and consortia
with private companies, research institutes and universities. Implementing PPPs and cooperation
between blockchain actors and envisioning a new role for government as part of consortia are critical
drivers of the blockchain development. It is a significant paradigm shift. However, this type of model
requires collaborative governance mechanisms that are challenging for the public sector.

(4) The transparency importance

Seventy per cent of the cases declared transparency as the most important motivation for blockchain
adoption. Stakeholders have high expectations of transparency and accountability from public services.
There is a growing demand from citizens for openness and to reduce corruption. It is particularly
predominant where there are inequalities, risks of corruption and fraud.

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