Blockchain: Where Does Your Country Stand?
“Blockchain Records Will now be Accepted as Legal Evidence, China’s Supreme Court Rules.”
The internet courts of China will start recognizing digital data that is submitted as evidence using blockchain technology as being legally binding.
Besides the news from China, there was also the recent announcement by the British government which plans to run a blockchain trial which would see digital evidence stored on a blockchain. “The decision was taken in order to assist in reforming British courts with blockchain technology which is expected to create a tamper-proof custody and audit trail in evidence management. The pilot project is currently being undertaken by various agencies including Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service.”
Now, we want to take a brief look at the status of some countries regarding the adoption of blockchain, excluding China and UK since we just mentioned their activities. The countries we assess are generally considered to the blockchain leaders in regard to innovation and adoption.
The Status of Countries Adopting Blockchain
South Korea
South Korea is obsessed with technology. This obsession also means that they want to be dominant in the blockchain sphere as well. South Korea has been a leader when it comes to “digitizing various aspects of Korean life.”
As an example, in August 2018, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it would be “investing $9 million to kick start pilot blockchain projects in the public sector.” “The projects involve using the technology for online voting, customs clearance, supply chain management, logistics, real estate, and cross-border e-document distribution.”
Japan
Due to a number of high-profile cryptocurrency thefts, Japan has started to clamped down the crypto exchanges; however, the county still has a pro-crypto business attitude that is helping attract blockchain businesses to its shores. Japan, like South Korea, is looking to cement its position as a blockchain leader.
“The country’s unique blockchain legislation is laying the groundwork for the digital economy. For now, all eyes are on Japan’s crypto sector to see how its regulations will influence the growth of this budding industry.”
United States
The US federal, state and local governments are assessing the practicality of using blockchain technology for the delivery of public services. In particular, some state and local governments are actively pursuing blockchain’s potential. For example, Cook County in Illinois did a pilot project to put land registration on blockchain.
Another example is the state of Delaware. The state in 2016 announced the Delaware Blockchain Initiative, a comprehensive program intended to merge the blockchain and smart contract industries, which is intended to help public and businesses lower their transaction costs, speed up and automate manual processes, and reduce fraud.
In the US, for blockchain to emerge as a viable alternative technology, “states will have to change existing regulations. They must address concerns about scalability, the difficulty of removing and editing data once uploaded, and investment in the new technology.”
To understand where states stand regarding the adoption of blockchain, The Brookings Institute classified the states according to their levels of engagement with blockchain technology. Based on their research, they found that quite a few states are actively pursuing the benefits of blockchain, such as Delaware, Illinois, and Vermont, while others have taken no action, such as Arkansas and South Dakota.
European Union
Europe is also trying to position itself as a global bloc for blockchain development. To help achieve this desire, the EU sponsors a Blockathon which is intended to explore how blockchain technology can actually make a difference and lead to a better society.
Other EU actions occurred on April 10, 2018, 21 Member States and Norway signed an agreement “creating the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) and cooperate in the establishment of a European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) that will support the delivery of cross-border digital public services, with the highest standards of security and privacy. Since the signing, four more Member States have joined the Partnership, bringing the total number of signatories to twenty-six.”
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, said this about the signing:
“In the future, all public services will use blockchain technology. Blockchain is a great opportunity for Europe and Member States to rethink their information systems, to promote user trust and the protection of personal data, to help create new business opportunities and to establish new areas of leadership, benefiting citizens, public services and companies. The Partnership launched today enables Member States to work together with the European Commission to turn the enormous potential of blockchain technology into better services for citizens.”
Dubai (United Arab Emirates)
Dubai is probably the most active city government pursuing blockchain. The city anticipates that “by 2020, it will be become the first government to conduct all of its transactions using blockchain.”
Estimates are that the by “adding visa applications, bill payments, license renewals and other documents to a blockchain could save £1.1 billion annually in document processing alone.” In addition, the government believes it could also “cut CO2 emissions by up to 114 metric tons due to trip reductions and redistribute up to 25.1 million hours of economic productivity.”
Switzerland
Besides the city of Dubai, the Swiss city of Zug is also becoming a leading implementer of blockchain. The city “already accepts cryptocurrency as payment for public services. In addition, the city digitized its ID registrations built on the blockchain, and it recently completed an e-voting trial.”
The city’s enthusiasm to blockchain is primarily due to its partnership with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and its relationship with the software company Luxoft. They intend to create a customizable blockchain-based e-Vote system, which is integrated with the city’s Ethereum-based digital ID registration application. Votes are anonymized and tamper-proof, and the system is deployed in three different data centers, which distributes security and data loss risks geographically.”
It is planned that Luxoft will “open source the platform and is planning to establish a Blockchain for Government Alliance to promote blockchain use cases in public institutions.”
Blockchain is Here to Stay
It’s encouraging that world and local governments are starting to see the other benefits of blockchain besides simply being the platform that powers Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies. From the enthusiast’s perspective, the news coming out of different parts of the world simply reinforces the idea that blockchain is more than Bitcoin and it’s not going away.
The undeniable truth is that blockchain is here to stay; however, blockchain is still in its early stages. It could be that some of the applications mentioned above fail, but if you could go back to the early 1990s and make a bet on the Internet, what kind of bet would you make? It’s taken the Internet how many years to unfold? Blockchain is not that much different.
Kevin Werbach, Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania said this about blockchain.
“Something similar will happen with blockchain. We’re at that point now where we can start to see the potential, and so therefore this is the time for public sector agencies as well as enterprises in the private sector to start to experiment and figure out where the real opportunities are, where this technology can actually solve problems in new kinds of ways. So that’s where we are today and it’s a very exciting time.”
Smart Justice and the Public Sector
Besides developing proposals for the implementation of blockchain solutions for public sector agencies, another important BANKEX public sector service was the development of a decentralized arbitration platform called Smart Justice. Smart Justice is BANKEX’s own legal structure which is intended to settle disputes which originate on the blockchain.
Smart Justice serves to eliminate the weaknesses of existing systems, which can include:
- High court costs. Professional and legal services can be very expensive.
- Duration of court proceedings. In some cases, it can take months or years to solve a court case.
- Jurisdiction. Laws can differ from state to state or country to country.
- Political bias of the court. Courts are not always blind — they may have some bias.
Smart Justice is a system that serves to eliminate the above-listed weaknesses which can be detrimental to the public sector.
If you have an interest to learning more about Smart Justice, check us out at https://sj.bankex.com, or check out our articles on blockchain at https://blog.bankex.org/
