Tory MP: UK must act now to tap blockchain’s potential

Hughes makes a series of recommendations in a new report, Unblocking Blockchain, published by Tory think-tank Freer, which champions blockchain’s ability to enable social freedom, increase efficiency and rebuild societal trust. This also proposes that government departments should have a ‘long-term target’ of making a 1% efficiency saving by using the technology.

“Blockchain and associated technologies offer an unrivalled opportunity to begin to review and redesign the UK’s data systems,” the report concludes. “Whitehall and public services could be fundamentally rewired to empower citizens and better serve their needs. We should encourage digital entrepreneurship. We must tackle the trust deficit. By introducing a departmental target for blockchain efficiency savings, we can begin to generate a digital dividend to pass on to tax payers or to reinvest.”

“And we can use a mix of classical liberal values and new technologies to strengthen individual freedom and improve the life chances of all. We must harness the energy of entrepreneurial spirit created by these new world-changing technologies to ensure the future is freer. By engaging now, and recognising blockchain’s potential, we can ensure it is used by the state to empower individuals, and to afford us real control over our own data.”

Read the full report here.