Examples of Web 3.0 use in an era of declining population: Technology finally reaches the phase of social implementation

Web 3.0 is the key to maintaining infrastructure in an era of declining population

The road collapse that occurred in Yashio City, Saitama Prefecture recently finally claimed victims, and was covered in the news more than the road collapse in front of Hakata Station in 2016. The cause was reported to be soil erosion caused by damage due to aging sewer pipes. The problem of aging social infrastructure, not just sewer pipes, has been a hot topic in various places for some time, but there are no signs of improvement.

There is simply a lack of manpower and budget to carry out inspections. In recent years, some companies have been using AI-based damage predictions, but since it is still up to humans to check whether damage has actually occurred, it is difficult to leave everything to AI.

That is why a concept called "DePIN (Distributed Physical Infrastructure Network)" has been attracting attention. It is a movement to use blockchain to control and improve real-world infrastructure, and a map project called "Hivemapper" is known. In this project, participants provide dashcam footage to a map company.

The map company updates the map information based on the images provided and issues tokens in return. This allows the map company to reduce survey costs, and it allows them to constantly update information in areas where people live, even if the area is too remote for the company's surveyors to send in.

The provider can also receive compensation, creating a win-win situation. It's also a clever system in that areas with few image posts mean there is less competition for people who want to get tokens.

Utilizing the eyes of citizens to quickly detect abnormalities in the town

There are local governments around the world that have come up with the idea of ​​using this system to maintain and monitor infrastructure. In fact, demonstration experiments using this system have already begun in Japan.