UK Government and Credits Sign First G-Cloud Blockchain Platform-as-a-Service Agreement

Crazy Review : Credits is a member of the Linux Foundation's open source project Hyperledger. Last year, it worked with the Isle of Man government to develop a registration system. Recently, the company has reached a cooperation with the government again to provide a blockchain-as-a-service platform for the UK public sector. By then, many central and local government agencies can use the platform to reduce costs and fraud risks, improve the quality of citizen services, and reshape the relationship between the government and citizens.

Translation: Annie_Xu

Blockchain platform provider Credits has begun offering Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to the UK public sector through the Digital Marketplace of the Government Digital Services (GDS) advisory committee.

The UK government commercial service agency CCS (Crown Commercial Service) has incorporated Credits into its G-Cloud 8 framework agreement, providing it with distributed ledger technology support (DLT); all agencies in the entire UK public sector will be able to use Credits' blockchain as a service, including central and local government agencies, authorized management agencies, medical institutions, educational institutions, emergency services departments, defense departments, as well as non-profit organizations such as charities and housing mutual aid associations.

CCS takes measures on behalf of the British Crown to help taxpayers increase savings and improve the quality of business and procurement activities. Its mission is to create value for the country with outstanding commercial capabilities and high-quality customer service. The Digital Markets Unit is the official platform for the UK public sector that wants to purchase cloud services and digital professional services.

Credits’ BaaS enables the UK public sector, solutions and managed service providers to build and deploy secure, enterprise-grade, interoperable DLT services.

Nick Williamson

Nick Williamson, CEO and founder of Credits, said: “Credits is delighted to be joining the G-Cloud platform. We are excited by the huge potential of distributed ledger technology for government agencies and the public sector. We look forward to working with the UK public sector to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their services to taxpayers.”

Credits’ BaaS on the G-Cloud platform is based on the cloud service infrastructure of UKCloud (formerly Skyscape Cloud Services). Before the G-Cloud agreement was reached, Credits successfully promoted its blockchain framework to the Isle of Man government in 2015, and launched a public chain PaaS (Platform as a Service) in April 2016.

Blockchain can help build strong identity management tools, protect data security, and reduce fraud and costs faced by the public sector. Government departments and agencies such as the National Health Service (NHS), DVLA, HM Passport Office, Land Registry, Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs will benefit greatly from distributed ledger technology to improve digital services and increase value for taxpayers.

In a recent report released by the UK government, the government's chief scientific adviser, Mark Walport, wrote: "Distributed ledger technology has the potential to reshape the relationship between government and citizens by improving data sharing, transparency and trust."

Mark highlighted several areas where the technology could improve, including increasing the traceability of aid spending, protecting critical infrastructure, registering assets such as intellectual property, wills, NHS medical data and pensions, and reducing welfare fraud.