Abstract
This study intends to assess the development of IoT-based smart cities industry and the possibilities of blockchain integration from the perspective of industry stakeholders as the vision for a modern, integrated smart city future is predicated upon intelligence and the relationship between data-rich connections and human activities. Although this ideal of an interconnected urban landscape is currently being tested and actively used by consumers spanning a range of connected nodes and service solutions, the scalability, interoperability, and security of this emergent cyber-physical ideal has yet to be adequately resolved. This study used an exploratory study design following a mixed method design approach. A structured questionnaire survey (quantitative) and interviews (qualitative) were conducted for collecting data. IBM SPSS was used for the analysis of the data, which computed descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, Pearson correlation, and ANOVA for quantitative data and thematic analysis for qualitative data. Through an empirical assessment of the perceptions and expertise of 122 stakeholders from within the worldwide IoT smart city industry, conceptual support for blockchain integration into the IoT solution was acquired, highlighting the solution-oriented, system-centered advantages of a decentralised, autonomous data management backbone that could be applied to future IoT-based smart city solutions. To meet the broad and diversified needs of the smart city and its future evolution, this study has confirmed that a commitment to decentralisation and blockchain intermediary data management is critical to scalable, secure, and autonomous negotiations of the IoT-enabled smart city networks.