Australia Post Accelerator has joined firms from across the globe that are experimenting with the blockchain technology which powers bitcoin. It is exploring three potential areas in which it believes blockchain can be developed: identity, registries, and e-voting.
Australia Post Accelerator partner Rick Wingfield confirmed the move at Australia’s largest ICT event for the public sector.
Technology in Government 2016 brought together senior public sector technologists and communications experts to discuss ICT solutions within government.
There have been global discussions about how blockchain technology can improve these critical areas particularly identity issues.
A UN summit considered using the technology in May following world leaders’ pledge to provide a legal identity to all by 2030. They proposed using blockchain technology to achieve the universal identification objective.
Wingfield says blockchain will help digitize a person’s identification process, unlike the current process that requires a lot of paperwork. Digital Identity is the Future
Australia Post Accelerator is the incubation arm of Australia Post which verifies about a quarter of the population annually for government agencies and corporations.
Australia Post is a Government Business Enterprise with the Commonwealth Government of Australia as its sole shareholder. It is also Australia’s largest retail network. Hence it has the knowledge that has earned it the convenient edge over the market.In April, Australia Post completed a so-called digital transformation. It says the change will equip it to compete with online services as customers post fewer letters. It immediately started the push to become the manager of consumers’ online identities as they conduct financial affairs online.Its chief executive Ahmed Fahour was the first to hint that the company was exploring the use of blockchain technology.In March, Fahour told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit that: The future is going to be a digital identity, so that when you say who you […]
