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A VOTE FOR BLOCKCHAIN

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MEDIA PARTNERS

IS IT TIME FOR GOVERNMENTS TO EMBRACE BLOCKCHAIN? THIS ARTICLE LOOKS AT HOW BLOCKCHAIN AND DLT CAN BE TRANSFORMATIVE TO GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS BY IMPROVING EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY AND BUILDING TRUST BETWEEN A GOVERNMENT AND ITS PEOPLE.

It is inevitable that blockchain technology will come to have a vital role to play in future governments. How involved this relationship will be however, is a question many are still grappling with.

Holding governments accountable for their foibles has been a challenge that has burdened civilians throughout the ages. It goes without saying that any system that is collectively established and coordinated by people with competing agendas and personal biases will always be subject to trust issues. We are only human after all.

A blockchain-powered future has been discussed as an elegant and dynamic solution to managing systems that are traditionally maintained by a centralised body.

The basic idea behind blockchain is that one can trust the system as a whole without having faith in its players. Applying blockchain to governance can make management and regulation immutable and instantaneous. It can also facilitate global cooperation and interoperation between countries and economies - a collaborative ecosystem that will allow access to unexplored markets and drive growth to new heights through increased mobility and improved operations in its supply chains.

Smart contracts are one of the many use cases of blockchain governance that show tremendous potential. They can be invaluable to governments for the efficiency they bring to the regulating table. Embedding auditable functions on the blockchain can negate the need for government and regulators to use third party auditors, which can be both expensive and time consuming.

Smart contracts can also be applied to tax collection. Through an escrow system, payments can be diverted, in real time and without the usual costs to the appropriate places. Most importantly, block tech can provide transparency to tax management.

This shared environment allows citizens to see precisely where and how their taxes are being spent.

Chiasso and Zug, towns which lie on the Swiss-Italian border, have already implemented the beginnings of a cryptofriendly fiscal policy, allowing citizens of this self-styled Crypto-polis to make small tax payments using a cryptocurrency. On the other hand, states such as Dubai are preparing to run their entire governmental infrastructure and economy on a blockchain. The system may currently be in its infancy, but it gives an intriguing glimpse into what the future of blockchain governance may be like.

from hackers and allows for an integral accountability in the system itself.

Another example worth citing is the use of blockchain for benefit distribution. In 2017 the United Nations World Food Programme harnessed this to make cash transfers to over ten thousand Syrian refugees in the Azraq camp.

Welfare distribution can be slow and prone to corruption - by operating through a blockchain system, the food programme was able to save money by avoiding bank fees, as well as enabling refugees to purchase food through a biometric eye scan – eliminating the need for cash, vouchers or electronic cards.

The pilot project, which is called Building Blocks, is the first step towards a platform that can be applied to the humanitarian community as a whole. If successful it could expand to areas such as supply chain operations and digital identity management.

Block tech can also offer governments the tools to revolutionise voting systems. Almost three quarters of the world rely on democratic voter consensus to elect officials and come to terms on referendums. Current systems are at best inefficient and at worst, prone to manipulation and corruption.

Digital identity and data management is also something that will flourish under a decentralised system. A future blockchain government ledger, powered by an encrypted, decentralised method of information storing, will bring in the idea of more responsible open data. Governments will be able to simultaneously process a multiplicity of transactions whilst guaranteeing that the interaction is certified and secure.

Over the last decade many governments have made the move from paper identity to digital, but centralised government records are still vulnerable to compromise. Designed around a system that puts security at the core, the shift from electronic to government-based digital identities offers citizens much better protection

Through a decentralised ledger, voting ballots can be encrypted and validified. Because voting data is not sorted by a central or corruptible entity, the risk of results being tampered with is eliminated. The application of this technology can also help mitigate the civil unrest and violence that often erupts after elections in countries where trust can be a fragile thing.

Only time will tell whether these changes take hold and to what extent their influence can be said to be world-changing. We can be certain though that as emerging technologies become more widespread across myriad industries, the global question of blockchain governance is one that will demand increasingly more attention.

CORPORATE & LEGAL SERVICES ICOs, STOs & CRYPTO LICENCE ADVISORY TAX & MOBILITY SERVICES

KSi Malta is a corporate and private client advisory, accounting, audit and tax firm, with a keen interest and specialisation in cryptocurrencies and tokenisation legal advisory. KSi Malta is endowed with lawyers, advisors, accountants and auditors hence rendering the firm’s knowledge multidimensional yet highly specialised. The firm has been at the forefront in advising crypto issuers and ancillary service providers some of whom have already relocated to Malta and enjoy the country’s positive blockchain vibe.

KSi Malta is a member firm of Morison KSi a world leading quality-focused association of independently owned service firms present in over 84 countries. Besides giving the firm an international exposure, such association enables KSi Malta to also attend to its clients’ international exigencies, whether they are tax, legal or accounting. Although saying that being a one-stop shop has now become a common marketing catchphrase, this is really and truly a living practice at KSi Malta, hence enabling the firm to be unique and standing out from the crowd.

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