The U.K.’s chief scientific adviser has urged the government to adopt the blockchain technology that powers Bitcoin to run various public services, BBC News reports .
The recommendation comes in the form of a new report produced by the U.K. Government Office for Science, edited by Sir Mark Walport, chief scientific adviser, which looks at the future of distributed ledger (or blockchain) technology and advocates the use of blockchains for a variety of services.
The report, titled “ Distributed ledger technology: beyond block chain ,” explores how distributed ledger technology can revolutionize services, both in government and the private sector, and recommends government actions to maximize the opportunities and reduce the risks of this new technology. The stated aim of the report is to decrypt blockchain technology for policy audiences and provide policymakers with the vision and evidence to help them to decide where action is necessary, and how best to deploy it.
In the foreword, Parliament members Matthew Hancock, minister for the Cabinet Office and paymaster general, and Ed Vaizey, minister of state for Culture and the digital economy, say that distributed ledgers will disrupt how we think about and store data, and propose that Great Britain should take a leadership role.
The MPs refer to key national technology assets, including the Alan Turing Institute, the Open Data Institute and Digital Catapult, which are to be put to work to achieve technology leadership and support governmental initiatives.
In March, Bitcoin Magazine reported that the U.K. government would launch a new research initiative to bring together the Research Councils, Alan Turing Institute and Digital Catapult with industry in order to address the research opportunities and challenges for digital currency technology and increase research funding in this area by £10 million (U.S. $14.6 million). Now, the Office for Science proposes new steps to start using […]
