Marrocco, L., Ferrer, E. C., Bucchiarone, A., Grignard, A., Alonso, L., Larson, K., & Pentland, A. (2018, July). BASIC: Towards a Blockchained Agent-Based SImulator for Cities. In International Workshop on Massively Multiagent Systems (pp. 144-162). Springer, Cham.

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles (AVs), drones and robots will revolutionize our way of travelling and understanding urban space. In order to operate, all of these devices are expected to collect and analyze a lot of sensitive data about our daily activities. However, current operational models for these devices have extensively relied on centralized models of managing these data. The security of these models unveiled significant issues. This paper proposes BASIC, the Blockchained Agent-based Simulator for Cities. This tool aims to verify the feasibility of the use of blockchain in simulated urban scenarios by considering the communication between agents through smart contracts. In order to test the proposed tool, we implemented a car-sharing model within the city of Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA). In this research, the relevant literature was explored, new methods were developed and different solutions were designed and tested. Finally, conclusions about the feasibility of the combination between blockchain technology and agent-based simulations were drawn.