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Blockchain: Latest advice for government agencies
Blockchain: Latest advice for government
agencies
12 February 2019
Tags:
Emerging technology (/taxonomy/term/368)
We’ve been asked to explore how
blockchain technology (/node/782) could help deliver
government services.
Blockchain is a technology that connects participants to provide an authoritative record of their
data and transactions, and also shows if the record has been tampered with. It builds on a
series of existing concepts and technologies which have many other uses.
Recently we undertook Discovery work on its potential to securely share and exchange
information across government.
Discovery stage
We brought together a cross-agency team to undertake Discovery on whether blockchain is
suitable for government services.
The team researched how blockchain is being used around the world in public and private
sectors. They also looked at existing case studies from Australian Government agencies.
What was found
Our findings are consistent with the recommendations of other jurisdictions (for example the
US Government agency, National Institute for Standards and Technology), international
organisations (for example the OECD) and leading analyst firms (for example Gartner).
Our team found that blockchain is still an emerging technology and, when applied to various
pilots or considered against alternative technologies, gaps become evident across both the
technical and business facets of its implementation.
We recommend agencies considering technical solutions focus on addressing the needs of
users and explore solutions to meet that need. Understanding user needs and understanding
the tools, skills and systems required to build, host, operate and measure the solution are both
criteria under the Digital Service Standard.
This should not stop agencies searching for innovative ways to share and use data. If you are
considering blockchain for your agency, we encourage you read
Blockchain overview:
Australian Government guide (/help-and-advice/technology/blockchain/blockchain-overview-
australian-government-guide) to help inform your discovery. We’ve based this guidance on a
recent paper from US government agency, National Institute for Standards and Technology.
We also provide
guidance for agencies who are looking at blockchain as a solution (/help-and-
advice/technology/blockchain/do-you-need-blockchain).
More to come
In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more on this topic, including case studies.
If your agency has done or is considering doing some work with blockchain, we’d love to hear
from you. You can email us at
xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx (mailto:xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx)
For media enquiries email us at xxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx (mailto:xxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx)
For other enquiries email us at
xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx (mailto:xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx)
© Commonwealth of Australia. With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and
where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license.
