The blockchain technology, including Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, has been adopted in many application areas during recent years. However, the main attention has been on the currency and not so much on the underlying blockchain technology, including peer-to-peer networking, security and consensus mechanisms. This paper argues that we need to look beyond the currency applications and investigate the potential use of the blockchain technology in governmental tasks such as digital ID management and secure document handling. The paper discusses the use of blockchain technology as a platform for various applications in e-Government and furthermore as an emerging support infrastructure by showing that blockchain technology demonstrates a potential for authenticating many types of persistent documents.
The blockchain technology has evolved beyond traditional payment solutions in the finance sector and offers a potential for transforming many sectors including the public sector. The novel integration of technology and economy that open public blockchains have brought represents both challenges to and opportunities for enhancing digital public services. So far, the public sector has lagged behind other sectors in both research and exploration of this technology, but pilot cases show that there is a great potential for reforming and even transforming public service delivery. We argue that the open blockchain technology is best understood as a possible information infrastructure, given its universal, evolving, open and transparent nature. A comparison with Internet is meaningful despite obvious differences between the two. Based on some case studies, we have developed an analytical framework for better understanding the potential benefits as well as the existing challenges when introducing blockchain technology in the public sector.
Part 4: Infrastructure and TechnologyInternational audienceThe visions and goals for the use of ICTs in public sector are huge, both related to efficiency, effectiveness and for strengthening democratic functions. The realisation of such diverse set of goals requires a broad range of means and measures. However, do the managers really understand the many functions and roles ICTs have and how they should be governed? This paper discusses what functions that ICTs have in the public sector, and analyses existing ICT governance approaches in the Norwegian government. Our findings do indicate that there exist a mismatch between the functions implicit in the objectives that are stated for eGovernment and the way ICTs are governed. This mismatch, can, at least partly, be attributed to an inadequate understanding of ICTs and its many functions
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