Abstract
Smart cities will bring forth new business applications that require decentralization and security. The blockchain technology is revolutionizing how businesses have been performing transactions traditionally. This technology is open, decentralized, and distributed by design and also embodies the notion of high level of trust in transactions. With its emergence, developers who are early adopters will make use of it to lower cost, speed up processes, and stitch together solutions previously considered unfathomable. Blockchain’s decentralized ledgers use smart contracts to conduct business automatically without intermediaries. This chapter will introduce the reader to the blockchain technology and smart contracts and discuss best practices to build smart contacts with the right data structures and techniques. We provide an interesting real-world use case of building an efficient supply chain provisioning system using smart contracts. Finally, we discuss pitfalls to avoid and challenges to keep in mind for building next-generation applications that leverage smart contracts. We also describe advantages and disadvantages of smart contracts.
DISTRIBUTION A. Approved for public release: Distribution unlimited. Case Number 88ABW-2020-2766; Dated 08 Sep 2020
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We would like to acknowledge the funding support of Air Force Research Lab, Rome, NY.
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Bhagavan, S., Rao, P., Njilla, L. (2020). A Primer on Smart Contracts and Blockchains for Smart Cities. In: Augusto, J.C. (eds) Handbook of Smart Cities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15145-4_55-1
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