Blockchain, News
by Irfan

Nation’s outlook to use BlockChain


Its been widely discussed topic in many financial institutions – #blockchain. The transformation of the financial services industry is top-of-mind for everyone in the field and blockchain might be the hottest topic in the rapidly changing world of Fintech.

But how can this technology really help government across nations?

Governments are still identifying potential use-cases (as below) to develop and implementing it.

  • Centralized processing services such as Revenue, Customs, Pensions into distributed open models
  • Empower networks of common services such as Health Department, Local Authorities with a network model which allows effective sharing of services, data and processes, enabling dramatic reductions in duplications of systems and services
  • Create new automated services for value exchange between government entities and across the boundary with 3rd parties (e.g. using Smart contracts for VAT calculation and collection, or for property registers and transactions)
  • Blockchains can potentially be used to record any type of documents, to conduct public registers, complete transactions and to facilitate public elections

Alright, Can we see few nation’s perspective on this blockchain below

Poland – Polish touch to the blockchain, it is worth mentioning the new policy guidelines of the Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs as of June 2016 ­– “From paper to digital Poland”. These seek to provide legal, regulatory and economic solutions to facilitate the use of virtual cryptocurrencies and enable the application of blockchain technology to promote innovative projects and ensure transaction security both in business and the public sector.

Singapore – Singapore government developed a system with the local banks focused on preventing invoice fraud by using the blockchain to create a unique cryptographic hash (a unique fingerprint) of every invoice

Sweden – Sweden is planning to place real estate transactions on the blockchain so that all parties involved in the transactions – banks, government, brokers, buyers and sellers

Estonia – Estonia has established an e-residency program where anyone in the world can apply to become an e-resident of Estonia. An e-resident can also open bank accounts using Estonia’s e-banking system, set up an Estonian company using the country’s online system and use their e-services. With the blockchain, Estonia is bringing worldwide residents to them virtually, and gaining new revenue streams accordingly

The Republic of Georgia, for example, is developing a blockchain project focused on this goal and spearheaded by their National Agency of Public Registry. They want to show that Georgia is corruption free, modern and transparent government.

Ghana – Another land registry application is taking shape in Ghana, West Africa, where they are implementing it in 28 communities to enable tamper-resistant property ownerships

Australia – In August, Australia Post presented a plan to the Victorian Electoral Matters Committee to use Blockchain for voting. A report title, ‘The Land Transport Regulation 2040’, by the National Transport Commission (NTC) mentioned that Blockchain could provide a potential foundation for a fairer, more transparent, and more sustainable, transport charging and funding model, by enabling ‘stable, trusted, interoperable and secure data communications within transport, and between transport and other service providers.

Dubai – In October, plans were announced by the Crown Prince,to use Blockchain technology for all government documents by 2020. The first aims to develop a real estate database using Blockchain technology

Hong Kong – Property valuations– As of October 2016, a DLT prototype for carrying out property valuations for use in the mortgage loan was being tested by ASTRI

USA – In November 2016, a consortium of Illinois state and county agencies announced the official launch of the Illinois Blockchain Initiative for the purpose of promoting a welcoming regulatory environment for innovative digital currency and Blockchain companies wanting to do business in Illinois. Earlier in the year, Delaware, where the maximum number of companies are incorporated in the US, announced that is exploring Blockchain to make its paperwork more efficient.

South Korea – The Korean securities exchange (KRX), looking at the technology. And announced its commitment to upgrading their trading engine and keeping securities on a blockchain. They plan to first add their non-listed securities as a test, much like Nasdaq’s Linq exchange has done.

UK – In August, a platform for deploying and managing blockchain applications and services was made available to the UK public sector. It is meant for the agencies to develop DLT based proofs-of-concept and large scale identity use case.

Next Question in our mind is ‘Who’s helping govt. to develop, implement and execute these strategies. Wait for my next article.

Reference