Vienna to Offer Reward Token for Citizens in Collaboration with University

Vienna, the capital of Austria, has involved itself with a brand new blockchain initiative which is going on in the country. As a part of it, the capital is ready to reward people with a cryptocurrency token.

The token will be named as Vienna Token. The countrywide incentive program was announced in December 2018. The token will be built in the partnership with the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The collaboration of the administration of the city and the Vienna University of Economics and Business will collectively develop the crypto coin.

Detailing about the recently announced crypto asset, the head of the local Research Institute for Cryptocurrencies, Shermin Voshmgir explained: “How a citizen could get the cryptocurrency”. He said that the new token would be given to the citizens of Vienna as a reward for providing feedback about the city on an app. The app is used to pay for parking along with riding bikes instead of using cars. Later, one can use the given crypto coin for purchasing valuable stuff like theatre tickets.

Voshmgir noted that the authorities are working on other possible use cases of the token. The token is designed with an aim to bring some value to the industry, rather than just creating one more cryptocurrency. She said, “We are in a very early design phase in which we are considering together with the City of Vienna what such a Vienna token could look like. It’s about understanding how we can generate a token that adds value to the city.”

According to her, cryptocurrencies could be the real “killer application” for the blockchain. She believes that in the next ten years the crypto assets will gain respect. In the current scenario, an investor’s trust and respect is something which cryptocurrencies do not hold. While pointing out to art and real estate blockchain projects, she claimed that fractional ownership is a useful way to implement the technology.
Moreover, with the recent Austrian Blockchain Center which was built in Vienna, the city has become a blockchain hub. The Austrian Blockchain Center is a multidisciplinary research center which especially works on finance, energy, logistics, Internet of Things (IoT), and applications in public administration.