Hangzhou taps block chain technology to make city smarter

A program using block chain technology to help with social governance has started in Hangzhou, according to an announcement at the first Hangzhou Block Chain Service Network (BSN) Partnership Conference Dec 1.

BSN is a trans-public network, and a trans-regional and trans-organizational platform for block chain services. It was designed by the State Information Center, and developed and deployed by China UnionPay and China Mobile.

BSN is able to lower the threshold of applying block chain technology and help accelerate its wider application, said Liu Yunan, director of the State Information Center.

The network can provide customized and high-quality technical services for the building of intelligent communities and the growth of digital economies. It can contribute to improving government efficiency by enabling the sharing of data between different departments.

An intelligent transport system was recently launched in Xiacheng district, Hangzhou, through BSN.

Residents can upload traffic and road conditions onto the system, with the information received by regulators.

Residents can receive scores, which can later be redeemed for rewards.

This system makes the data accessible to more people while getting them involved in city governance, said Wang Zhenfeng, deputy head of Xiacheng district.

Hangzhou has introduced block chain technology into other fields such as hotel cleaning supervision. In this case, cameras are installed in hotel sterilizing rooms to take pictures which are transferred to a computing server in real-time for analysis through 5G communications.

The application server will decide whether disinfection has been made based on analysis results, as well as other data such as the job logging of cleaning workers and operational data of disinfection cabinets.

During the conference, the BSN Development Alliance signed a cooperation deal with the government of Xiacheng district to set up a BSN incubator in the district.