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Commodity Ecology: From Smart Cities to Smart Regions Via a Blockchain-Based Virtual Community Platform for Ecological Design in Choosing All Materials and Wastes

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Blockchain Technology for Smart Cities

Part of the book series: Blockchain Technologies ((BT))

Abstract

This article describes three points: (1) how a fine-grained yet systematic model of regional material sustainability called Commodity Ecology is being linked to current technological trends (2) of societies evenly saturated with ever cheaper and more mobile Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and (3) increasingly organized by decentralized ledgers like Blockchain. We live in a society connected by the Internet and increasingly served by and even ruled by online platforms. Particularly, an evenly shared mobile-phone revolution in ICT is putting platform access in the hands of all peoples around the world. Another disruptive technology after the Internet is blockchain technology which has revolutionized the exchange of information in areas such as cryptocurrency, supply chain management, healthcare and smart contracts. Thanks to these technological developments, instead of just smart cities, we now live among real/virtual ‘smart regions’ that on their own are capable of deliberating, finding, and buying/selling en masse toward their own better choices in sustainable material choices and better waste handling. These trends are utilized by the first online blockchain-based virtual community platform for ‘smart regions’ that facilitates this global, multi-regional drive to more democratic, holistic, and sustainable ecological design in all of our consumptive choices. Commodity Ecology is a model, rubric, and checklist for sustainability in 130 material categories, on a virtual platform for deliberation in over 860 distinct ecoregions simultaneously. The United Nations Academic Impact Office called Commodity Ecology a top global initiative for actually achieving Sustainable Development Goal #12, Responsible Consumption and Production.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Technology and Society, Stony Brook University, State University of New York, Korea, Incheon, Songdo, South Korea

    Mark D. Whitaker

  2. Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, State University of New York, Korea, Incheon, Songdo, South Korea

    Pravin Pawar

  3. SUNY Korea, Incheon, South Korea

    Mark D. Whitaker & Pravin Pawar

Authors
  1. Mark D. Whitaker
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  2. Pravin Pawar
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Correspondence to Mark D. Whitaker .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ReSENSE Lab, Department of Electronics Engineering, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), Yongin-si, Korea (Republic of)

    Dhananjay Singh

  2. Department of Electronics Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) BHU, Varanasi, India

    Navin Singh Rajput

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Whitaker, M.D., Pawar, P. (2020). Commodity Ecology: From Smart Cities to Smart Regions Via a Blockchain-Based Virtual Community Platform for Ecological Design in Choosing All Materials and Wastes. In: Singh, D., Rajput, N. (eds) Blockchain Technology for Smart Cities. Blockchain Technologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2205-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2205-5_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-2204-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-2205-5

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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