City of Las Vegas Investigates Using Blockchain to Get Smarter

The city of Las Vegas announced its review of blockchain and its potential implementation for smart city applications to improve services for the community. Blockchain is a decentralized database technology with communal maintenance.

The city is only one of many considering using blockchain — a subject of a recent CES trade show panel. Experts encouraged cities to focus on how the technology will positively impact their communities rather than how it works.

Blockchain provides a key element of smart city applications designed to improve daily life. Popular applications include smart street lighting, parking, air quality, and traffic control.

Michael Lee Sherwood, the city’s director of innovation and technology, says Las Vegas is “examining with partners to harness the best application uses which will increase productivity and service delivery to our community. Look for more to come on Las Vegas and blockchain in 2019.”

See also: 4 predictions on blockchain and the cyber “arms race” in 2019

“Smart cities of the future, the smart governments of the future, will have to go ahead and have the blockchain as part of their leadership,” says Natalia Olson-Urtecho, co-founder and head of strategy and innovation at consulting firm The Disruptive Factory.

Featured in three different CES panels, the general consensus agreed that digitizing space is a need not a luxury. City managers should take note.

Las Vegas has already begun the transformation with its innovation district, which works as a test environment. They’ve also just announced a six-month pilot program with AT&T and Ubicquia to create a smart lighting network.

Sherwood said Las Vegas is seeking to be a leader in new civic technologies because it “fits with the spirit of the community.”