Isle of Man government leads blockchain exploration in public service sector

Rage Review : The economic development department of the Isle of Man government, a British crown dependency, has become the first public service department to apply distributed ledger technology, using blockchain to record a list of companies exploring distributed ledgers. The relevant registration system was jointly developed by the Isle of Man government, Manx ICT Association and Credits. The Isle of Man has long been a global tax haven, and the openness of blockchain technology has led the government to plan to use it to build a completely open and transparent corporate registration environment. Earlier this year, the Government Office for Science reported that blockchain can improve government transparency and mutual trust with the public, so it is believed that the UK will replicate this system soon.

Translation: Annie_Xu

The UK Crown Dependency’s economic development department has become the first public service to use distributed ledger technology.

The Isle of Man government is leading the way in adopting a public services system based on blockchain technology, and one of the system’s developers says the model will soon be replicated in the UK. The British Crown dependency’s economic development department has begun using a blockchain registry to create a directory of companies that are actively using the online distributed ledger system.

The registry was developed by the Isle of Man government in conjunction with the Manx ICT Association and Credits, a company that provides a blockchain technology application platform.

The blockchain was initially designed to provide a public ledger for Bitcoin transactions, but after technical development, it can provide a mechanism for legitimacy review and transaction chain audit. The blocks in this mechanism record transactions with timestamps, and all blocks are connected in series to form a chain.

Nick Williamson

Credits CEO Nick Williamson said the service supports the Isle of Man government’s efforts to regulate the circulation of digital currencies under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Credibility and availability

“The technology demonstrates the ability to verify the trustworthiness and availability of services in a blockchain.”

"The project is on the internal list of the Economic Development Department and will be publicly released for everyone to download and register in about a week."

Williamson said it provides a safeguard that users can look at the registry and confirm that government officials have actually registered them.

"As a former tax haven, they began to promote transparency in certain processes and develop open business models, and therefore began to pay attention to blockchain technology."

Williamson said Credits and its partners are working with the Isle of Man government to explore new use cases, although they are still at the conceptual stage and will not necessarily use digital currency. He said he hopes to announce other service projects in the coming months.

He said Credits is also in discussions with some U.K. public agencies about building blockchain-based services.

Previously, Cabinet Minister Matt Hancock pointed out that blockchain technology has great potential for application in government agencies and has begun exploring its application in the allocation of subsidies in this area.

Earlier this year the Government Office for Science released a report saying distributed ledger technology could reduce fraud, corruption and improve trust between governments and the public.