Blockchain Potentials — Public Democracy

Government

Blockchain has potential to improve the efficiency of public sectors.
Blockchain can benefit government by reinforcing the relationship of trust between citizens and public sectors through its transparency.
Using blockchain in some public service systems, citizens can verify the information and data they care about without going through the government.
For example, blockchain allows all participating parties to have copies of information in the network so that on issues like government spending, people can track where money goes without waiting for governmental reports.
Beyond that, the immutability of blockchain ensures that the data citizens see is accurate, so people will be more confident of government’s transparency.

Blockchain can help improve data provenance, integrity, and transparency in the healthcare sector.
As the number of patients increase, related databases including patient health information, electronic health records, and medical insurance claims managed by healthcare providers grow, making it harder for providers to store, share, and process information securely.
So, a secure information sharing method that ensures the correctness of data is needed. This is where blockchain comes in. By anchoring that data to the public blockchain, patients can verify their related data without going through third parties.
More importantly, the immutability of blockchain ensures patients’ information will not be changed without their approval.
Beyond that, blockchain regulates counterfeit drugs more effectively. By putting blockchain into usage in pharmacology, once a drug is produced and moved from the factory to retailers, its information will be recorded on the blockchain, and the whole path of the drug will become easy to track, detecting fake drugs more effectively.

Many customers have concerns about the safety and originality of a product, especially the food they buy.
For industries where goods are passed through various hands, blockchain is an ideal technology to track where those goods come from and where they go.
For example, as soy beans pass through different hands from farmers to retailers, at each transfer there will be a record on the blockchain system; since the system is immutable, the accuracy of those records can be ensured.

Due to the decentralization of blockchain, every customer will have access to those records so they can trace the originality of the foods they buy from stores to see if they are truly healthy and organic, as the label claims. Many well-known companies, including IBM, Walmart, JD.COM, have launched a blockchain project to optimize their supply chain.