Impact of the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) IOTA on Smart Cities

Sammanfattning: This article analyses the impact of the IOTA distributed ledger technology (DLT) on smart cities. The world population is rapidly increasing while at the same time trends such as urbanization shape future demographics. Thus, fast-growing cities face the challenge of increasing demands in resources such as energy, water, transportation, while at the same time aiming to increase life quality by reducing burdens such as pollution and waste. The concept of a “Smart City” emerged with the ambition to solve a city’s issues by creating social and economic advantages while providing efficient resource allocation processes. Nevertheless, current information communication technologies tend to underperform a smartcities systems requirement since the quantity of connected devices increases which slows down the transition of a city becoming smart. The distributed ledger technology IOTA promises to enable automated, feeless transactions and processes with a high level of integrity, which may impact the development of smart cities. In this research the IOTA technology is introduced and investigated. The advantages of IOTA compared to conventional information communication technologies and the blockchain technology are highlighted. Thereafter, the current state of IOTA in smart cities is reviewed by analysing current research and use cases. To investigate the concept of a smart city the smart city initiative framework, including its subcategories is introduced. Additionally, different experts working on IOTA integrations related to smart city initiatives were interviewed giving insights into their field ofexpertise. Finally, an analysis and discussion of the IOTA technology use cases are put into relation with the multi-level perspective framework (Geels, 2006) highlighting the positive impact of IOTA on the development of smart cities.