The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is trying out the Ethereum blockchain to proactively publish administrative data, such as government grants and contributions.
Canada’s Government has partnered up with Canadian blockchain company Bitaccess to carry out trials on the Ethereum blockchain.
According to a press release, “The National Research Council of Canada, through its Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), is now using Bitaccess’ latest product, the Catena Blockchain Suite – a set of software services that allows public institutions to publish complex datasets onto a blockchain, such as Ethereum“.
NRC IRAP is using Catena to conduct a live trial to explore the use of public blockchains in the transparent administration of government grants and contributions. At this stage of the trial, NRC IRAP is using the Ethereum blockchain to publish grants and contribution data in real-time. A list of already published disclosures is available on the project’s website.
“Our goal is to enable institutions to become fully transparent, and enable constituents to participate in the verification and validation of public information,” co-founder of Bitaccess Moe Adham said.
“We built the Catena Blockchain Suite as a simple, low risk application for institutions to get introduced to blockchain technology. So far the reception has been terrific.”
Other countries give the Ethereum blockchain a tryout
Earlier this month, the Brazilian Government announced plans to move the country’s infamous popular petitions onto the Ethereum blockchain, in an effort to properly and securely collect, store, and verify hundreds of millions of signatures, as part of a wider package of electoral reforms to strengthen instruments of direct democracy.
A decentralized mobile app based on the Ethereum blockchain is currently being developed in the country. Spearheaded by a Brazilian legislator who is also a programmer with the Ethereum team, the project has been under development since early 2017, but is still waiting for legislative approval.
Image source: The National Post