A World Economic Forum article calls for the use of blockchain technology in government processes to fight corruption and waste.
Blockchain disruption in public governance has the potential to improve transparency, justice, and efficiency in government processes, to name a few areas of application.
Matthew Van Niekerk, co-founder and CEO of blockchain-as-a-service company SettleMint, wrote for the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda section on how blockchain adoption might enhance public procurement and land registries.
In the opinion of Van Niekerk, public procurement is one of the most significant channels for corruption and waste in the federal government.
According to the CEO of SettleMint, the closed-off nature of the procedure promotes illegal contact between public authorities and private companies, according to the article.
Van Niekerk speculated that the use of blockchain technology might pave the way for a more transparent system of public procurement.
According to the article, this broader pool of players would include groups such as standards organisations, consumer protection watchdogs, and the media, among others, in addition to government parastatals and private businesses.
With blockchain adoption, Van Niekerk believes that decentralised ledger technology would provide an “easy-to-access, tamper-proof, and real-time window into on-going procurement processes.”
As recently as October 2018, a study by the World Bank Group highlighted blockchain as a potentially useful tool for defragmenting government procurement procedures across the world.
In the context of land registries, Van Niekerk said that blockchain technology may be a potential solution to the issues associated with inefficiencies in registration and title systems.
According to Van Niekerk’s essay, a blockchain-based registration system would aid in the elimination of land transaction bottlenecks, thus eliminating the need for bribes and other less-than-legal actions that are now needed to expedite the transaction process.
Land registries are, without a doubt, one of the most widespread applications of blockchain technology that can be found throughout the world. State governments across the world, from Sweden to Australia and even nations in Africa, are exploring the use of distributed ledger technology for land registries.