Perhaps one of the most trending technologies today is blockchain. It is called the breakthrough of the 21st century: it is transparent, unchanging, and independent of governments and corporations. Blockchain can be used in many areas: finance, logistics, management and even medicine.
Moscow City Hall also decided to introduce technology into its projects to make them transparent for city residents. Kirill Polyakov, head of the blockchain projects of the Information Technology Department of the Government of Moscow, tells us what the results are today and whether it is planned to introduce its own cryptocurrency in Moscow.
What is the essence of technology?
The essence of the blockchain technology is revealed in the name - it is formed from two English words: block and chain (block chain). Here information is grouped into blocks, and they, in turn, into a sequential chain. A new block is written to the system of the nodes (network nodes), which calculate the hash sum (which is the encryption algorithm) and write it to the blockchain, linking it with the previous one. Thus, the block of the latest version contains data on all previous ones. And if someone interferes with the system - for example, changes the information in one of the blocks - the latter will simply "break": the hash sum will change, and the entire chain will become invalid. If no changes were made to the data, then the nodes confirm their validity and the blocks are saved to the blockchain.
One of the ways to transfer and save data in the blockchain is a smart contract - a program code that is recorded and executed on all nodes of the network at the same time and with the same result. The code is in the blockchain: you can see how it works, and what the results are.
Some smart contracts allow you to completely abandon the intermediaries in the transaction, as they take on the role of an independent billing or contract system.
Blockchain technology is not a panacea. Now there are few projects that can not be done without the blockchain. Simply using it allows in some projects to reduce the cost of transactions, in others - to increase transparency and trust in the system, as well as to reduce the costs of processes or employees.
Why did Moscow need a blockchain?
DIT uses the Ethereum blockchain platform (private blockchain). This is free software. Proof-of-authority consensus algorithm. Parity platform shell. Solidity programming language.
- First, the principles of technology are great for solving existing problems. For example, a city is interested in increasing transparency and trust in any city service or service. Blockchain - almost the first technology that allows you to open data and demonstrate that they are unchanged, while not revealing the personal data of users.
- Secondly, the blockchain works fine with large registries and systems with a large number of transactions - while greatly reducing their cost by automating actions (using smart contracts), lower processing costs, no intermediaries, and in some projects - distributed computing.
- Thirdly, DIT of Moscow is constantly in search of new technologies and is ready to implement them, launching pilot projects that can grow into full-fledged information systems.
It is important to understand that blockchains and their purposes are different. For example, there are public blockchains like bitcoin or ethereum. They have Mining and cryptocurrency, which the network rewards miners for performing calculations. And there are private blockchains where this may not be the case. For example, Moscow projects use a private blockchain, and there is no usual mining and cryptocurrency.
First things first. To understand the difference between these types of blockchains, let's draw an analogy with a bulletin board on the street.
Public blockchain - it's like a board on which anyone can stick absolutely any ad, and all passers-by will immediately see it. In this case, the mining process is needed to ensure that the announcement is not a simple advertisement, and that the advertiser will not paste many ads on top of the rest. This is such a guarantee that the gambler is the one for whom he claims to be, and he does not have any unfair intentions. At the same time, if the board is big enough, then all passers-by can see all the current announcements and their entire history.
Private blockchain similar to the bulletin board, covered with glass and on the lock (like those that often stand at the entrances and serve to place announcements by the housing office). In this case, you can stick a new ad only with a key - it is absolutely clear that there is no sense in doing any mining (mining), since the ads can be placed only by the housing office (or the one whom he allowed to do). However, all ads are still seen by everyone.
If you go into technical details, a public blockchain is by definition slower, and a private one is faster. For functional payments, public blockchains are more suitable, because in a network where no one trusts anyone, the data reliability is higher.
Private blockchains are better suited for storing status and data, since the source (or verifier) of the data is a single point, and building complex infrastructure with “distrust” ultimately makes no sense, lead source of verified data we have one.
That is why we chose a model with a private blockchain for piloting the technology.
First pilot. Blockchain in the Active Citizen Project
Not long ago, the Moscow Government decided to introduce blockchain into urban systems. First of all, the city is testing technology on the Active Citizen project. Why precisely he? “Active Citizen” - an e-voting project for Moscow residents on urban issues, from grass mowing height in parks to the name of a station or even a subway line.
You can judge the popularity of the service among Muscovites by numbers - in the project there are more than 2 millions of users, and more than 3600 polls have already been held. It was he who was chosen to pilot the blockchain technology. The tasks of implementing the technology here are the preservation of all votes and votes of users in the blockchain and the ability to check the immutability of votes by residents.
The blockchain in Active Citizen was launched in November 2017. More than 1600 votes have been recorded in it today. 150 users have installed copies of the blockchain for themselves - that is, their computers have become network nodes and store data on all votes.
As already mentioned, the “Active Citizen” now has more 2 millions of users - and all their voices are written in the blockchain. Such positive dynamics once again confirms the expediency of introducing the blockchain into other public services.
But there were also difficulties, for example, what to do with personal data, which according to 152-FZ we cannot transfer to other users. The solution was found in replacing personal data with a user ID, which is stored in the system and in the blockchain. In this case, the user can always find his voice on the network without disclosing his personal data.
* High School of Economics
** Data center of the Department of Information Technology
The results of the project. In addition to the need to provide confirmation of the immutability of user votes, the DIT was faced with the task of ensuring that no vote was lost and was taken into account.
Below are screenshots that show the consistency of the voting results displayed on the Active Citizen project page with the results stored in the blockchain. The data on some already completed polls was demonstrated from the data reading interface - Parity.
To monitor the current status of the blockchain network, a special interface is used, which allows you to view the network operation parameters in real time.
Second pilot. Blockchain and Weekend Fairs
Weekend fairs are held in Moscow several times a year. On them, farmers from Russian regions can put up for sale their products and goods in urban areas for free. At each session (the beginning of which invariably causes a stir), farmers are recorded through the mos.ru portal - more than 20 thousands of participants from different regions submit their applications. The filing peak falls at the first hour after the opening of the bidding campaign.
To confirm the invariance of the applications themselves and their filing time, a blockchain network was created that records all farmers' applications in real time, and has the ability to upload data from the blockchain to the site or node of anyone who wants (the distribution can be downloaded and installed on your computer).
The project was launched quite recently, but you can already see the first results on the mos.ru portal.
In this project, we face an important task - to duplicate all entries of applications, to record the timestamp (filing time) of each application in the blockchain, since this indicator strongly influences the participant’s admission (other things being equal, the one who submitted the application wins).
How does it work?
What is a blockchain for an ordinary Muscovite?
The presence of a blockchain in a city service or service ensures that there is no interference with the process and results. The guarantee of immutability of the data gives a special method of storing them. It provides that if the information is replaced or deleted, the remaining entries in the block chain will also have to be changed, since each subsequent block refers to the previous one.
The goal of Moscow's DIT is to popularize the blockchain among Muscovites and transfer the maximum number of city services to technology.
Will Moscow have its own cryptocurrency?
Some cities and countries take cryptocurrency more than seriously. Belarus legalized mining cryptocurrency and token exchange, Malta seriously intends to become the cryptocurrency center of the world (and major Asian cryptobirds are seriously going to move to the island), Venezuela releases its crypt El Petro, London has its own cryptocurrency Colu. But Japan has gone farthest of all - there a bank account can be opened both in yens and in bitcoins, since in the country cryptocurrency is legalized as a means of payment.
We understand that the blockchain and cryptocurrency are inseparable, but we cannot implement it now due to the lack of regulation. But like all other states, we study this issue and keep up with the times.