Why Blockchain Technology Is the Most Feared Enemy of a Corrupt Government

Over the years, blockchain technology has been famously known for its transparency and accountability nature. Corrupt governments on the other hand, for some reason, plainly lack these simple qualities. When elected into power, instead of working selflessly for the betterment of the people and the country, they decide to do things their own way and for their own selfish interests.

The quality of "0%" tolerance for fraud might just be the only reason a corrupt government would scowl at the implementation of blockchain technology.

WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Blockchain is a system of digital blocks of information connected to each other. 

The idea of blockchain was originally introduced in 1991 by a group of researchers who labelled it as a Time-Stamping Technology. According to them, blockchain was intended for Time-stamping documents so that the information contained in those documents are impossible to back-date or tampered with. The idea was neglected and later resurfaced in 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin, and the launch saw a wake of an era of digital currency fully backed and implemented on the concept of the blockchain.

The Urgent Need for a Blockchain Implementation in a Failing System of Government

Governments of some countries have proven to be incompetent and incapable of running the affairs of a state, thereby doing a good job at running down the economic affairs of that state. This is mostly due to their inexplicable involvement in corruption and their blatant support for it.

Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, however, its growth is rather exponential. 

The implementation of blockchain technology by a government administration would contribute to a sudden jump in the revitalization of the downtrodden economy of that country and a massive decrease in corruption plaguing that country. 

Areas of Government Where Blockchain Technology Should Be Implemented

• Digital Identity Management System.(DIMBS)

• Voting and Electoral Process Of A Country.

• The Banking Sector of A Country.

• The Finance Ministry Of A Country.

• The Healthcare Management Sector.

Digital Identity Management System (DIMBS):

Digital Identity is simply known as the digital documentation of data of a citizen in the Database Systems of a country. 

In the aspect of DIMBS, blockchain technology could help combat the sluggish process of documenting and scouting for already documented data of an individual. It would also help in the validation of the recorded data and give no room for fake and manipulation of identity data documented in a Database System.

Voting and Electoral Process Of A Country:

The voting and electoral process of a country is an important activity for bringing leaders into power and various offices of a country. In this process, the citizens are required to perform their civic duties by electing their preferred candidate—a candidate they believe, if elected into power, would work in the interest of the people.

Blockchain technology, if properly utilised in this aspect, would help in the validation of votes and make it difficult for an individual or multiple votes to be tampered with. 

Blockchain would also help with the real-time transmission of votes in seamless manner, even as they're being cast in the polls. 

The Banking Sector of A Country:

The banking sector today plays a key role in our lives one way or the other. This body is responsible for managing the money of the citizens in a country. 

Implementation of blockchain in the banking sector of a country would help combat the hassles of bounce rate and the increasing number of failed transactions and bring it down to its barest minimum. 

Blockchain technology also known for its speedy processing nature would also help in the swift completion of transactions between two parties if implemented in the banking sector. Depositing a comprehensive time-stamped reference ticket of the “two parties” would not be left out in this context.

Implementation of Blockchain technology in the Central Bank of a country would also help to keep tabs, track and record each and every currency printed一ensuring the effective control of the amount of currency in circulation thereby avoiding illegal printing of currencies that could have a negative impact on the country's economy.

The Finance Ministry Of A Country:

The Finance Ministry of a country is responsible for the regulation, management of financial records and monitoring of a country's revenue. 

In this area, Blockchain would help in monitoring every disbursement of government revenues in the country and also help in putting it out for the public to see.

It would also help in the record-keeping of formulated tax policies and also help monitor the tax payments of citizens in the country.

The Healthcare Management Sector:

The healthcare management sector is a system where both past and current medical records of citizens are documented. 

Placing medical records in digital blockchain technology would not only account for the safekeeping of those records but also help in pulling up old medical records faster.

In an emergency situation which demands the administration of quick treatment, A doctor could easily refer back to the past medical record of that patient placed on the blockchain in order to determine the necessary treatment for that patient instead of wasting time on carrying out another series of determinant tests—as that might just lead to the patient giving up the ghost.

Why a Government Would Simply Ignore the Implementation of Blockchain Technology?

Corruption:

A common reason why a government would always bat an eye to the implementation of blockchain technology in a particular sector is always due to their active involvement in the corruption going on in that sector. Most times, they claim their refusal is due to "matters concerning National Security".

A bad government seeking to maintain power would never implement blockchain technology in its electoral processes—they see the rigging of elections as a pleasant way of winning elections. 

The "powers that be" in the banking sector would never allow blockchain technology to see the light of day in its banking system. Those powers wouldn't want anything to hinder their activities of self-money laundering and laundering for other elites in power. 

The Finance Ministry of a government is undoubtedly the sector where corruption is most dangerous and critical to the economic welfare of a country, however, corruption in this sector has proven to be rife. 

Also, in the Healthcare sector; implementing blockchain technology in a corrupt sector would be a false idea—where false medical records of patients are being documented and sent to the government in order for them to rake in absurd and illegal medical budgets from the government. 

All these corrupt sectors in the government are also not innocent of the corrupt practices of "ghost workers" form of corruption—where a government agency would keep on receiving allocated salaries and benefits of people who have since left offices while most of them are even presumed to be dead in real life. 

Lack of Technical Know-how:

It's no doubt that the majority of people we have in government offices today are mostly of the '50s. Without proper orientation, their ideas and beliefs are simply outdated in the modern-day era of technology. This has, in various ways, proven to have a great impact on their lines of decision-making—the effects are nothing short of catastrophic. 

Since the government obviously lack the knowledge and the technicalities of blockchain technology; the right sense of what to do would be to bring in blockchain technology experts and work with them in synchronicity and in line with government policies, but no, as usual, they'd rather turn a blind eye and deaf ears to such suggestions and then come up with the excuse of how expensive it would cost to implement blockchain technology.

IN CONCLUSION. 

The only problems blockchain technology aims at solving in our society are corruption which has eaten deep into our system and the lack of inclusiveness of the people, by the government, but, with the presence of corrupt governments and bad leadership in power today; that reality seems to be far away from actualization.