Australian Digitizers: Blockchain Not Superior to Existing Alternatives
October 23, 2018 by Akshay Makadiya
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), an Australian body tasked with digitizing government services, has concluded that blockchain technology currently isn’t superior to existing alternative technologies due to a lack of standardization in the sector.
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Standardization a Must for the Growth of Blockchain
In new testimony, the DTA’s leadership has asserted “without standardization” blockchain is currently inferior to existing technologies.
“It would be our position today, and this is early in our light up on this, that blockchain would be well worth being observed but without standardization and a lot of work to come in it, for every use of blockchain you would consider today there’s a better technology alternative,” DTA chief digital officer Peter Alexander told government officials on October 23rd.
That position is based on DTA’s interactions with a series of domestic government agencies that have been exploring blockchain use cases in recent months.
Still, Alexander stated that conclusion was preliminary and that further blockchain exploration was warranted. Earlier this year, the Australian government pledged thousands of dollars toward exploring how distributed ledgers could be used to deliver government services.
Taking the Temperature
Alexander may have dashed some cold water on blockchain tech as is, but the DTA is still working to develop a distributed ledger system to modernize the welfare payment delivery system.
“Our plan is to look for use cases across the Commonwealth with an initial focus on the welfare payment delivery system,” DTA CEO Randall Brugeaud said back in May. “Then working with our digital service standard, we’ll conduct user research with a view to having a prototype by the end of next financial year.”
In his newer remarks, DTA’s Alexander generally added that blockchain tech is “at the top of a hype cycle” driven by aggressive promotions by companies in the private sector and not government departments.
However, governments around the world have been actively flirting with the technology in various sectors in recent months. Blockchain tech has been touted by its proponents as a means to digitize a number of bureaucratic operations for improved transparency and trust.
Will DTA eventually come around in favor of blockchain technology? Share your views in the comments section.
Images via Pixabay
