Page 21 - FCW, Jan/Feb 2018

to track physical assets. We asked: Where do we have transactional inef- ciencies? Where do we have places where we have a lot of friction? Where do we have a third party that probably doesn’t need to be there? Can we auto- mate some of the things on a ledger that we’re doing manually now?”
One executive predicted that next- generation 5G networks and distrib- uted ledger technology will revolu- tionize the sharing of data. Using the example of cancer data collected by the National Institutes of Health, he said anybody in the United States could interact with that data on a mobile device and do whatever they need to do with it.
“You’ve essentially just created an arti cial neural network,” he said. “When I talk about blockchain, I don’t say, ‘Oh, we’re going to secure our supply chain.’ I say the entire industry can be reformed because I can put this capability as a layer in a 5G net- work, allow for mobile interactions,
create immutability around the data and allow for interactions at a decen- tralized level.”
How blockchain can build trust
Restoring trust to government processes was a recurring theme throughout the discussion. The group talked about the need for citizens
to have insight into the process of receiving government bene ts, with one participant citing the example of ling for unemployment bene ts and then waiting for a response to come via the mail.
“Imagine having the ability to go onto a mobile device or computer, and in real time, the second you sub- mit the information, it will be agged for what’s missing immediately and you’ll have complete transparency as to where you are in the process,” the executive said. “That is huge in terms of creating trust.”
Another participant agreed, saying, “It’s the speed and the transparency
the ledger can bring, not anything inherent about its decentralization.”
One of their colleagues went even further. If someone is ling for unem- ployment bene ts, “it’s not just that I want to qualify for my weekly check,” the of cial said. “I want to know if there are other programs that I am also eligible for that give me different bene ts. If I’m a veteran, I need to know what my veteran’s bene ts are. There are multiple agencies already involved in this person’s life.”
Similarly, another executive said,
“I would love to have a digital identity that has my health records, my mar- riage license, my driver’s license, the title of the house I own, all these pieces of paper, all these things I’m doing through all these different agencies at the federal, state or even county level.
I have zero control over where that information goes, who sees it, who uses it, if they lose it.”
Another executive said the federal government’s push for open data often
January/February 2018 FCW.COM 19