Interoperability Benefits and Challenges in Smart City Services: Blockchain as a Solution

The widespread usage of smart devices with various city-centric services speeds up and improves civic life, in contrast to growing privacy and security concerns. Security issues are exacerbated when e-government service providers trade their services within a centralised framework. Due to security concerns, city-centric centralised services are being converted to blockchain-based systems, which is a very time-consuming and challenging process. The interoperability of these blockchain-based systems is also more challenging due to protocol variances, an excessive amount of local transactions that raise scalability and rapidly occupy memory. In this paper, we have proposed a framework for interoperability across various blockchain-based smart city services. It also summarises how independent service providers might continue self-service choices (i.e., local transactions) without overloading the blockchain network and other organisations. A simulated interoperability network is used to show the network's effectiveness. The experimental outcomes show the scalability and memory optimization of the blockchain network.

Automated summary

The widespread use of smart devices and city-centric services improves civic life, but also raises concerns about privacy and security. To address security issues, city-centric services are shifting towards blockchain-based systems, which is a time-consuming and challenging process. This paper proposes an interoperability framework for blockchain-based smart city services and explores how independent service providers can continue local transactions without overloading the blockchain network. A simulated interoperability network demonstrates the effectiveness of the framework, showcasing the scalability and memory optimization of the blockchain network.