Creating a "book of life" on a blockchain, will this be good or bad?
I have not been playing with the idea of using a blockchain for citizenship management (for the lack of a better word) for a long time. I have however been in the IT industry for many years. As a business development executive for a stock exchange listed entity, one of my main job functions is to find solutions to business problems. This is in the enterprise organisations as well as government departments space.
I must admit that if I am in the position to present the blockchain technology as a solution to any government, I will highly recommend the technology. There are many posts about the blockchain and how it works, but the most interesting fact is also the most basic fact.
The fact that we all have a private and public key, as well as a full audit trail is very interesting.
We have in South Africa, carried Identity Documents for all of our lives, as they are issued at birth. It is a green little book which contains our unique number, which is used at many occasions. For example, when you open a bank account, or by a house. The problem with the ID document is that it is an easy target for fraud. Let's look at what the blockchain technology can offer a country. When I lived in the United Kingdom, the only official document that we carried was a passport. The population of Britain felt it is against their human right to be forced to carry a identity document, which I fully understand. But since I was born into a country where we carry these type of documents, I personally do not mind the document, as it helps a lot on many aspects except, for the fact that it opens a means to fraud… hence putting this on the blockchain.
Identity management
Let's say we are issued a digital identity at birth on a Block Chain, which provides you with a public key (your ID number) and a private key, your transactional identity, we enable so much for the future of each identity. We should obviously use a more user friendly number than a hash :) There are a few identity management systems build a blockchain platform for example : Shocard
Voting
We can now have the means for a digital voting platform. There are already various organisations which is looking at a Voting System on a blockchain for example: Follow my Vote
Financial Transacting
Now you buy a house or open a bank account (which is not required when you use cryptocurrency by the way), but you will use your Digital Identity, to link your property to your name and transact through a Smart contract using you Private Key.
Property Management
The house registration document will be on a blockchain with a full audit trail, and a "Book of life" for the full audit trail of transactions on the blockchain. For example, when the house was last painted, or when did they last fi the roof or when was the last problems with the plumbing of the house. Very similar to a vehicle service history, just for a house.
Medical Aid and Records
What if your medical history is available to any doctor in the world, things like your allergies will be available publically and the personal detail will be available privately, but when you sit in front of a new doctor, you can make the private medical history available to him/her by entering your private key into the system.
Buying or selling a vehicle
Just as buying a house, the vehicle can be transferred with a full audit trail and "book of life" to your public profile, and you will transact using your private profile.
Drivers Licenses
Your driver's license and full audit trail of your offences will be available to law enforcement. The penalty system can now be enforced.
Law enforcement
This is probably the area in the whole chain of events which will benefit the most, as there is a full audit trail of all financial transactions. Most crime have some or other financial component. This will be used to benefit the law enforcers. Not work against them.
Tax enforcement
This is another key benefit for both the citizen and the government. Smart Contracts can enforce the taxes from the tax payers, but a full audit trail and business intelligence dashboards will be available to the citizens on how the tax money was spent. I would love this.
There are many more examples which we can discuss, but I believe that the positives of using a blockchain outweighs the negatives of not using a blockchain. I have however learnt in life, that technology is only one of the aspects that need to be considered when implementing new ideas. There is also the "Big Brother is watching you" aspect that needs to be considered. I personally will not mind a "Book of Life" for my whole history, if it can be used in a positive way, but I am sure there are also many negatives to it.
I am not sure if a government will want to implement this type of technology as it will be too transparent and too difficult to hide corruption.
How do we move from where we are today to using this new technologies. It can definitely not be done using a big bang approach. You will also notice that I have not even touched the benefits of using a crypto-currency in the discussion, that is something for another article.
Your comments would be appreciated.
