Las Vegas Ponders Blockchain Technology in the Public Sector
January 15, 2019 by Akshay Makadiya
Las Vegas city leaders are reportedly planning on making further forays into blockchain technology with a mind toward improving the deliverance of public services. The interest makes sense, as the city’s recently opened an innovation district and is aiming to become much more than just a tourist destination.
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On Chain in the Strip
Committed to making Las Vegas’s recent smart city initiatives a reality, the city’s technology director is now reportedly eyeing public services-minded blockchain embraces in the locale this year.
That director, Michael Lee Sherwood, said there was “more to come on Las Vegas and blockchain in 2019″ and that the city’s leadership was specifically exploring uses of blockchain with associated tech partners.
“[We’re] examining with partners to harness the best application uses which will increase productivity and service delivery to our community.” Sherwood was quoted as saying at CES 2019.
Already the self-professed Entertainment Capital of the world, Las Vegas, the largest city in Nevada, would join a growing list of blockchain hubs around the world if Sherwood’s vision comes to fruition.
A Growing Pack of Blockchain Adopters in ‘Smart Cities’
Notably, Mayor of Seoul Park Won-soon declared last year his intentions to integrate blockchain technology into Seoul’s public infrastructure, such as transportation systems.
Some, like India’s Prime Minister Modi, have even said blockchain has the potential to power most government activities, which would include city-level governance.
To that end, the Indian arm of PwC, the world’s second-largest professional services firm, issued a blockchain-centric report in 2018 that said distributed ledgers could prove to be an important catalyst for developing smart cities.
“Blockchain presents an opportunity to make the technology initiatives of a smart city more secure, transparent, efficient and resilient in consonance with the objectives for the Smart Cities Mission,” the report’s authors noted.
Dubai, an economic hub in the Middle East, is another city actively embracing blockchain technology for smart-city initiatives. The city has already made steps toward adopting the tech at a city-wide scale and has plans to migrate over 50 percent of all local transactions on to a distributed ledger.
Back closer to Las Vegas, Nevada’s Washoe County and Elko County are both reportedly working toward using distributed ledger tech to store and issue birth certificates.
And, of course, Blockchain LLC announced plans last year to convert over 65,000 acres of Nevadan land into a blockchain-powered smart city. With the growing list of jurisdictions adopting the technology, does blockchain have a future of tangible adoption ahead?
It’s an open question for now.
Will blockchain become commonplace as the internet is today? Share your views in the comments section.
Images via Pixabay
