• Energy Research
• economics and business close
• 9. Industry and infrastructure close
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The immense success of Bitcoin has also highlighted the hidden potential of blockchains and distributed ledgers in general. However, most blockchains are based on the so-called Proof-of-Work principle, which requires significant resources, making them unsuitable for the growing number of Internet of Things devices, not to mention other problems such as ensuring privacy and resistance to quantum computing. This paper, therefore, analyses current approaches in the field of ledgers with applications for the Internet of Things. Based on this, it presents a new ledger architecture for cultural heritage preservation that is energy sustainable and tailored to smartphones while pushing the deployment boundaries closer to the rest of the Internet of Things world. It is also resistant to quantum computing and provides privacy with accountability. Moreover, the developed solution considers not only the core technological structure but also its broader social (business) context, i.e., links to the tourism sector. This is performed by incorporating the relevant business model, as business models are important for the successful adoption of new technologies.

The increasing population across the globe makes it essential to link smart and sustainable city planning with the logistics of transporting people and goods, which will significantly contribute to how societies will face mobility in the coming years. The concept of smart mobility emerged with the popularity of smart cities and is aligned with the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations. A reduction in traffic congestion and new route optimizations with reduced ecological footprint are some of the essential factors of smart mobility; however, other aspects must also be taken into account, such as the promotion of active mobility and inclusive mobility, encouraging the use of other types of environmentally friendly fuels and engagement with citizens. The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain and Big Data technology will serve as the main entry points and fundamental pillars to promote the rise of new innovative solutions that will change the current paradigm for cities and their citizens. Mobility-as-a-service, traffic flow optimization, the optimization of logistics and autonomous vehicles are some of the services and applications that will encompass several changes in the coming years with the transition of existing cities into smart cities. This paper provides an extensive review of the current trends and solutions presented in the scope of smart mobility and enabling technologies that support it. An overview of how smart mobility fits into smart cities is provided by characterizing its main attributes and the key benefits of using smart mobility in a smart city ecosystem. Further, this paper highlights other various opportunities and challenges related to smart mobility. Lastly, the major services and applications that are expected to arise in the coming years within smart mobility are explored with the prospective future trends and scope.

An integrated transport service fare system, supported by an agreement for ticket revenue sharing among service providers, is an essential component to improve the experience of the users who can find single tickets for the integrated transport services they look for. A challenge is to find a model to share the revenue which all providers agree on. A solution is to adopt data-driven approaches where user-generated data are collected to extract information on the extent each transport service was used. This is consistently used. However, it suffers from incomplete data, as not all users always validate their ticket when checking out or when switching lines. We studied all technologies available to support automatic ticket validation in order to record when the users access and exit each service line. The contributions of this work are the following: we give an in-depth description of the inner workings of this novel approach describing how we take advantage of each technology; we present the developed solution (Beep4Me), which adds new functionalities to an existing mobile ticketing platform; and we describe our testing framework, which includes most cases users might encounter during a trip. Our results demonstrate how it is possible to collect key data related to validations which can be used first for clearing purposes and then for network planning/fleet optimization.