Australia will invest 800 million in Digital identity

The private sector around the world has adapted and invested in digital identity, now Australia has a plan of investing $800 million in identity tech; $6.9 million is aimed at blockchain. The cause of this investment is that after seeing 30 years of growth, the coronavirus has now tipped the country into a recession as lockdowns send the country to have a series of problematic expenses.

The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison presented this investment package one week before the publication of the Federal Government’s budget, this includes a $6.9 million investment for “two blockchain pilots focused on reducing business compliance costs.” Morrison said, “The plan supports Australia’s economic recovery by removing outdated regulatory barriers, boosting small business capacity and supporting technology adoption across the economy.”

Importantly, the budget also includes $480 million for various technology initiatives that could interact with the wider distributed registry technologies, including $183 million for a new digital identity system and $301 million for the development of a single business registry. Chloe White, head of the National Blockchain, a division within the country’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources, has called the decision to provide direct funding for the development of this technology “a major victory for today’s Australian blockchain,” adding that, “this is the largest investment the government has made in the sector.”

This strategic move on the part of the Australian government opens the door to much greater opportunities on the part of its administration to streamline processes that are normally tedious and slow, and also a great advantage of digitizing the identity of its citizens making their security the best it can be. This brings to the table the indisputable statement that data is the new oil that moves the world.

Data is how we all leave a trail and record of how we behave as individuals, in our daily activities we generate data in almost everything we do from setting the alarm to waking up in the morning to taking an electric bike for a ride in the park, so no doubt this will help the public sector in Australia and all companies around the world who want to see their business grow.