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BRIEFING APRIL 2018 Cautious Optimism. Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian Government Digital Services At a Glance This briefing explores how distributed ledger technology (DLT)—such as blockchain (BC) and its potential uses—can support better government digital services. BC’s distributed trust model is a promising tool to support the government’s efforts to ensure accountability and transparency. The technology also has the potential to simplify both the management of trusted information in a secured way and the government’s interactions with Canadians. Further adoption of BC will require a demonstration of the technology’s capabilities and growing maturity through additional proof of concepts, experiments, use cases, and prototypes.
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Page 1: Cautious Optimism: Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian ...€¦ · CAUTIOUs OpTImIsm Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian Government Digital services Find Conference Board

BRIEFING ApRIL 2018

Cautious Optimism.Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian Government Digital Services

At a Glance

• This briefing explores how distributed ledger technology (DLT)—such as blockchain

(BC) and its potential uses—can support better government digital services.

• BC’s distributed trust model is a promising tool to support the government’s efforts

to ensure accountability and transparency. The technology also has the potential

to simplify both the management of trusted information in a secured way and the

government’s interactions with Canadians.

• Further adoption of BC will require a demonstration of the technology’s capabilities

and growing maturity through additional proof of concepts, experiments, use cases,

and prototypes.

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Executive Summary

This briefing explores how distributed ledger

technology (DLT)—such as blockchain (BC)

and its potential uses—can support enhanced

government digital services. There is a

willingness to better understand blockchain.

While some issues will be addressed over time,

there are some significant policy questions that

need to be addressed before it can be adopted

on any meaningful level. Therefore, widespread,

enthusiastic adoption of blockchain will require

a demonstration of the technology’s capabilities

and growing maturity through additional

proof of concepts, experiments, use cases,

and prototypes.

The government plays a leading stewardship role with regard to public

records and public funds, and its maintenance of trusted information

about Canadians, businesses, assets, and activities.

BC’s distributed trust model is a promising tool to support the

government’s efforts to ensure accountability and transparency. The

trust model also has the potential to simplify both the management of the

trusted information in a secured way and the government’s interactions

with Canadians.

The greatest challenge associated with the implementation of BC is

building trust relationships in the administration (and with the users) of

the technology, as the strength and integrity of the data protection rely

on layers of self-reinforcing trust.

This briefing advises the federal government to:

• align its digital transformation efforts;

• better link data across jurisdictions and government departments;

• scale up to more efficient and responsive public services;

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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• determine the next prototypes to further grow DLT maturity;

• develop a pan-Canadian DLT vision to provide direction to users, service

providers, and Canadians.

Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of DLT technology, namely BC,

while subsequent sections will explore BC applications in government,

and examine current challenges. The briefing ends with ideas for action,

mainly on the part of the Canadian federal government.

The briefing explores how DLT, such as BC and its potential uses, can

support better government digital services across various public policy

issues. Findings stem from a literature review and interviews with key

experts from several federal departments and provincial governments in

Canada, the Canadian information technology industry, and experts from

the United states, scotland, The netherlands, and estonia.

Interview discussions examined current DLT proof of concepts, use

cases, and prototypes under way; how BC technology integrates within

other existing technologies; and the challenges and opportunities BC

technology has provided to date. Additional questions explored the risk

implications in adopting BC technology; scalability; impacts on trust

for users, service providers, government, and citizens; and balancing

the potential benefits of an emerging technology over proven older and

legacy systems.

Distributed Ledger Technology

DLT’s current wave of innovation has resulted in public BCs that

have captured considerable attention, particularly when deployed

around financial platforms and decentralized peer-to-peer crypto-

based networks. The technology gained relevance as a trusted digital

distributed ledger (like a spreadsheet)—a network that provides

a secure, transparent, immutable record of events (i.e., verified

transactions, cryptocurrencies, contracts, and records).

BC’s distributed

trust model is a

promising tool

to support the

government’s

efforts to ensure

accountability and

transparency.

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CAUTIOUs OpTImIsm

Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian Government Digital services

Distributed ledgers can be private (fully permissioned); consortiums

(partially permissioned); or public (through distributed platforms such as

Bitcoin, ethereum, and Ripple). (see “permissions.”) The term

“blockchain” is often used to refer to these public ledgers, which derive

their utility as a mechanism to generate, track, and facilitate the

exchange of digital assets. each data record or block has a unique

identifier linked to the previous block that, once validated by the network

and added to the ledger, form a chain—hence the name.

Permissions

some networks require permission to read information on the chain (thus limiting

access to transactions on the chain) and can also determine who can write new

blocks into the chain.

Under this framework, every transaction is recorded as a block. Blocks

are chained and encrypted, and the BC grows. The distributed ledger

is a complete history—auditable and verifiable—meaning the blocks

collected can be verified and managed through automation and shared

governance protocols.

DLT is useful as a historical record of events, particularly for events that

one or more parties need to authorize or authenticate. However, it is not

optimized for storage of data because all pieces of data are replicated

across every node in the distributed network. nor is DLT optimized for

storing data that are intended to be private or secret, because the data

are distributed widely. As well, DLT is not suitable for data that change

rapidly or for information that must be widely known instantly after it has

been changed.

Thus, DLT is complex. There is a willingness to better understand the

technology and its various platforms. Benefits to governments accrue in

situations where data-sharing is required, when there is distrust or trust

is low, or when there are multiple entities writing and reading the ledger

and looking to strengthen authentication and identity validation. While

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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some issues will be addressed over time, there are some significant

policy questions that need to be addressed before it can be adopted on

any meaningful level. For instance, how the technology will conform with

privacy laws and, more specifically, the right to be forgotten or right to

erasure. BC is also a shared technology, and there are cultural obstacles

to sharing infrastructure and data across jurisdictions. Further proof-of-

concept demonstrations, use cases, pilots, and prototypes are needed

to secure broad-based stakeholder buy-in. potential DLT adopters are

proceeding with cautious optimism, due to the relative scarcity of current

BC implemented and effective working solutions.

There are many arguments in favour of DLT. It facilitates a privacy-

respecting, data-sharing ecosystem and validation of digital attributes

for users. DLT users appreciate the decentralization of data-sharing,

data immutability, security features, and information integrity protection.

Individual actors are unable to remove or alter blocks and chains (like

rows in a spreadsheet) with a distributed ledger, as BCs provide an entire

secure, permanent, and encrypted record. Any potential adjustment in

one block would entail modifying all the subsequent records in the chain.

Additionally, once the chain is supplemented by another block, all related

network nodes (computers) are automatically updated, making data-

sharing across a distributed network a dynamic process.

An additional benefit of BC is its capacity to provide a degree of

privacy and (pseudo)anonymity in transaction ledgers, as users are

not compelled to provide personal information to each other. However,

there may be requirements for identification at various points in the

network, such as occurrences at exchanges, which allow trading

in cryptocurrencies. The technology supports environments where

individuals and organizations take ownership and control of their

data, creating a sophisticated structure of permissions (that is, who is

allowed to modify BC data, what they can modify, and when).1 These

attributes collectively deliver improvements in efficiency, integrity, speed,

distributed trust, and durability.

1 everyone in the network can see data that are shared on the chain. If encrypted data are stored, they

can also be seen.

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The government plays a leading stewardship role with regard to public

records and public funds. In this capacity, it maintains trusted information

about Canadians, businesses, assets, and activities. BC’s distributed

trust model is a promising tool to support the government’s efforts to

ensure accountability and transparency, and simplify the management

of this trusted information in a secured way in its interactions with

Canadian stakeholders.

Blockchain Applications to Deliver Government Digital Services

There are many compelling reasons to adopt DLT to deliver government

digital services. potential benefits include the reduction of overhead

costs (i.e., shared infrastructure, reduced auditing and reconciliation

of documents, in relation to centralized systems), improved citizen and

client services, and improved data-sharing. Governments may choose

to adopt DLT where public services require personal interaction or for

individual identification and verification associated with handling or

managing public documents, permits, and licences. This extends to

commercial and property related matters (such as the transfer of land,

real estate, lease contracts, and land registries) as well as personal

applications (such as the registration of birth and marriage certificates,

degrees, visas, and credentials). (see “General Applications.”)

General Applications

General categories may include documentation verification (commercial vs.

personal applications), tax administration, internal government services and

program administration, and consumer product regulation.

DLT can also be implemented to deliver core government activities,

such as taxation administration. However, care may need to be taken to

construct data models that do not leak personal or private information.

DLT technology can also be beneficial in consumer product regulation.

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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The technology can be applied to transfers of ownership, tracking or

tracing regulated consumer products, and facilitating (smart) contracts.

In health care, BC technologies can support government digital services

to assist with streamlining patient information. Although DLT is likely

not suitable for sharing private or protected information directly, it

is potentially useful for sharing the administration of permissioned

access to records across multiple providers (i.e., not the data itself,

but who has access to the data). Financially—beyond transactions,

securities, settlements, and debt assistance—BC technologies can

back digital services around monetary benefit disbursal. This includes

the administration of family allowances and the secure transfer of funds

to welfare and pensioner recipients. As an example of this application,

in 2016, the United Kingdom’s Department for Work and pensions

experimented with DLT to allow welfare claimants to receive and spend

benefit payments through an app. The transactions were recorded, with

consent, on a distributed ledger to support the department’s financial

management and reduce benefit fraud.2

Overall, DLT is not the solution for everything, and should be applied

where its strengths will be exemplified. Determining when to use BC

should require answering technology usage criteria, or pre-conditions.

These include instances such as:

• when there are multiple distributed participants or multiple parties that

generate transactions;

• where parties need to trust the validity of transactions;

• where intermediaries are inefficient or untrusted;

• where enhanced security is needed;

• when permanent non-refutable records are needed.3

2 The DLT pilot was found to be effective and encouraging, but no decision was made for scaling up.

3 In part, based on Deloitte’s BC decision framework in Krawiec and others, Blockchain: Opportunities

for Health Care.

© The Conference Board of Canada. All rights reserved. Please contact cboc.ca/ip with questions or concerns about the use of this material.

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Government Blockchain Use Cases Outside of Canada

Governments across the globe, from municipal to national levels, are

pursuing various proofs of concepts, experiments, use cases, and

prototypes. Few applications are in production, however. According to a

march 2017 Deloitte study, the 10 most active public sector use cases

that were in progress, planned, or announced—with a concentration of

experiments in the U.s. and europe4—were:

1. digital currency/payments

2. land registration

3. voting

4. identity management

5. supply chain traceability

6. health care

7. proxy voting

8. corporate registration

9. taxation

10. entitlements management

The netherlands, for instance, has over 46 concurrent experiments

under way, including 18 prototypes and one in production (child

allowances in the city of Zuidhorn).5 The Dutch are also pursuing the

potential of self-sovereign digital identity allowing citizens to connect and

have better control over their personal data.

estonia is viewed as a leader in adopting DLT. Adoption and

development began over a decade ago as the country faced pressures

in cybersecurity. To also address earlier distrust concerns, secure digital

ID cards are issued to estonians and residents. This allows them to

verify the integrity of their records held in government databases and to

control access. (The model is not pursued in Canada, although it offers

an inspiring vision). estonia is also now securing its citizens’ electronic

health records through Keyless signature Infrastructure (KsI) technology.

4 Killmeyer, White, and Chew, Will Blockchain Transform the Public Sector?

5 OpenGov, How the Dutch Government Is Exploring Blockchain; Dutch Government, Blockchain.

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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The technology is used to safeguard all public sector data,6 allowing

government officials to monitor changes within various databases,

including who and when. The country is also looking to expand KsI

technology, making it available to all government agencies and the

private sector.

elsewhere, the United Arab emirates aims to have a paperless public

sector by 2020 through the use of BC technology (a single software

platform and online encrypted database). In south Korea, the Dayli

Financial Group is building a national BC ecosystem called ICOn. The

ecosystem will allow government, universities, hospitals, securities,

banks, and the private sector to interact “without third-party networks

that charge transaction fees or delay the process”; and to exchange

digital currencies, stocks, games, security information, and even

hospital databases.7

In the U.s., the states of Delaware and Illinois have been proactive

in developing applications and pilots. Leading the country, Delaware

embraced BC and smart contract technologies to foster sector growth,

and provide supportive legal and regulatory environments to help

“the public and enterprises lower their transactional costs, speed up

and automate manual processes, and reduce fraud.”8 In Illinois, more

recently, each pilot project can select its own BC technology provider

to develop a specific application to meet its respective needs. Thus,

several BCs are established for specific purposes across varying public

scenarios, jurisdictions, and organizations.

DLT is truly a multipotential technology. However, a single ledger for

everything won’t work. Generally, there is little to no alignment in digital

transformation efforts within or across jurisdictions to jointly adopt and

interoperate BC technology, including in Canada. Interoperability across

BCs (e.g., multiple applications on the same network) will remain a

challenge for some time. In this emerging field, BC service providers

6 Guardtime, KSI Technology Stack. Visit the web site at https://guardtime.com/technology to learn

more about KsI technology.

7 Ramirez, “Could This Blockchain in Korea Be the First to Connect an entire Country?”

8 Delaware is the legal home of 66 per cent of Fortune 500 companies and 85 per cent of U.s.

initial public offerings. Delaware Office of the Governor, “Governor markell Launches Delaware

Blockchain Initiative.”

© The Conference Board of Canada. All rights reserved. Please contact cboc.ca/ip with questions or concerns about the use of this material.

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and developers are also continuously fine tuning how to program BC

applications for public services.

Government Blockchain Experimentation in Canada

In Canada, there are several cases of experimentation and proof

of concepts (poC) under way or completed. Indeed, government

departments will benefit from experimenting with DLT technology and

increasingly deploying it strategically. poCs generate significant lessons

around the business challenges that need to be overcome and, perhaps

critically, whether existing non-BC technologies applied more effectively

can achieve similar or better goals. Leading DLT adopters include the

national Research Council (nRC), Bank of Canada (BoC), and the

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), although there are many additional

experiments ongoing (see Appendix B).

National Research CouncilAn area where nRC is pursuing DLT is in the recording of contribution

agreements and making government research grant and funding

information more transparent to the public. All Canadian granting and

contracting departments and agencies are proactive in the disclosure of

key government contracts. nRC has begun a trial of DLT using the Catena

Blockchain suite9 (ethereum-based) to publish contribution agreement

information in real time. Therefore, when nRC creates or amends a

contribution agreement, the change is shared on BC with Bitaccess. As

well, individual contribution information is posted on an online database—a

measure that complements ongoing quarterly proactive disclosures

available through the Open Government website (open-data initiative).

Canadians can then peruse nRC’s contribution agreement disclosure

information by monetary value, date, recipient, and region.10

9 national Research Council, “exploring Blockchain for Better Business.” For more information on the

experiment, see https://nrc-cnrc.explorecatena.com/.

10 Canadians can also verify contribution agreement information by clicking on the Transaction ID link,

which takes them to the unique transaction listing on the online ethereum transaction database,

etherscan.io.

Government

departments

will benefit from

experimenting with

DLT technology.

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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Bank of CanadaThe Bank of Canada completed a one-year BC pilot project named

Jasper and concluded that DLT is not yet mature enough to run a

national interbank payment settlement system.11 BoC has committed

to researching the new technology and partaking in a poC alongside

payments Canada, Canadian commercial banks, and the R3 consortium.

The Bank of Canada, payments Canada, and the TmX Group recently

announced phase 3 of the Jasper project and will develop a poC for the

clearing and settlement of securities.

Canada Revenue AgencyCRA identified the need to develop policy for the tax treatment of digital

currency and seizing digital holdings, along with privacy, banking, and

cybersecurity issues. The Agency is looking into cryptocurrencies

and the risks they pose to the Canadian tax base to inform future risk

assessment and audit approaches, in addition to developing the means

for detecting tax non-compliance. The Agency is also looking to build

a new BC-based digital identity service, expanding on secureKey

Concierge’s service, which is used by individuals to authenticate

themselves to the federal government through the banking sector.

Toronto Restaurant OperatorsThe Government of Canada, province of Ontario, and City of Toronto

undertook a poC that explored using BC to reduce the time that business

owners take to open a restaurant in the city. The process of setting up

a new restaurant involves compliance with over 25 provincial statutes

by obtaining various permits, with much duplication of information.

Rather than submit their information to each agency separately, the poC

successfully demonstrated that applicants could submit their information

only once. That is because the information was securely shared between

all agencies through a private BC platform. The poC also demonstrated

that third parties, such as banks, might hold “read access” to certain

11 Wilkins, “project Jasper”; Gillis and Trusca, “Not There Yet.”

© The Conference Board of Canada. All rights reserved. Please contact cboc.ca/ip with questions or concerns about the use of this material.

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information that would allow mortgages to be issued to business owners

without the need to resubmit certain information.12

Following the experience with restaurant operators, the City of Toronto’s

Department of municipal Licensing is creating a digital registration

system for drivers interested in working with Uber, and is exploring

AirBnB next.13

Corporate RegistriesIBm Canada, the province of British Columbia, and the Digital ID &

Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) collaborated to develop

a poC to explore the viability of BC technology as a tool. Their

purpose was to enable more secure, effective, and efficient corporate

registrations—both within a single province and across multiple

jurisdictions.14 British Columbia’s leading achievements and increased

technology maturity are partly due to the robust relationship between

public services and technology services to jointly advance BC adoption,

and technology maturity “off-chain” government data architecture to the

hyperledger BC technology platform. Further work on the poC is required

to strengthen its viability.

Challenges and Improving Government Digital Services With Blockchain

DLT technology adoption faces numerous challenges including privacy,

regulatory standards, interoperability, and implications on public sector

and business processes. On the technology side, there are questions

of “platform scalability, validation methods, data standardization, and

systems integration,” while on the managerial side, the questions include

“business model transformation, incentive structure, and transaction

scale and maturity.”15

12 Responses from interviews.

13 Wood, “City of Toronto’s Tracey Cook.”

14 Digital ID & Authentication Council of Canada, Is Blockchain the Answer.

15 Killmeyer, White, and Chew, Will Blockchain Transform the Public Sector?

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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Without commonly accepted standards for BC technologies or the

networks that operate them, selecting a BC platform and architecture

remains a difficult choice. Governments must not only assess an

adequate technology and ways to integrate it within their existing

systems, but also identify stable partners, particularly small to medium-

sized start-up firms.

privacy risks are a priority concern and require constant attention and

robust encryption methods to maintain user privacy, including how to

protect an individual’s right to correct or forget their personal information

recorded on a BC. As a solution, BCs could potentially encrypt the

personal data at issue and the use of timestamps for personal data

held elsewhere; limit disclosure by design; or supply privacy impact

assessment as it pertains to a user’s privacy rights. significantly, among

all the technology’s challenges, the largest BC risk implication is the loss

in user privacy and trust. BC adoption will weaken as trust declines. It is

a journey to earn trust.

Ideas for Action Going Forward

How can governments take advantage of BC innovation while dealing

with the above risks and challenges? several countries—such as

estonia, The netherlands, and singapore—established small expert

groups, even hackathons,16 from digital services, chief information officer

bureaus, information technology departments, procurement services,

and technology adopting department authorities, to list priority BC pilot

opportunities and partners for implementation.

such groups could guide the federal government’s choices to pursue

the next prototype. Indeed, this briefing recommends that the Canadian

government support a larger BC pilot program with multiple contributors.

starting with lower-scale experiments, pilots may consider areas where

public services require too much time, duplication, manual tasks, and

cost, to demonstrate baseline capabilities. (see “pilot program.”)

16 Hackathons are a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in

software development—including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, and

subject matter experts—collaborate intensively on software projects.

DLT technology

adoption faces

numerous

challenges

including privacy,

regulatory

standards,

interoperability,

and implications

on business

processes.

© The Conference Board of Canada. All rights reserved. Please contact cboc.ca/ip with questions or concerns about the use of this material.

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Pilot Program

For instance, start with small pilot programs within multiple different federal

government departments, develop early cross-departmental standards through

steering committees, and scale up implementation within departments with

harmonized parallel structures.

As pilot projects create larger Canadian expertise while BC increasingly

matures, BC service providers can then test the technology, manage

ledger challenges, and improve BC platforms to meet more specific

government digital service needs. In support of this growth, the nRC’s

Industrial Research Assistance program (IRAp) continues to assist

Canadian small and medium sized enterprises (smes). IRAp also

provides advisory services and financial contributions to research and

design, and delivers and commercializes BC and distributed ledger

technologies.17 In this instance, there is a preference to focus on

investing in the Canadian BC sme ecosystem before building internal

government expertise.

expect DLT adoption to take time. Currently, any improvements to the

BC-backed government digital services are years away from production.

proof of concepts, experiments, pilots, use cases, and prototypes can

take several months to a year to complete.

meanwhile, government departments and agencies continue to share BC

experiment and pilot lessons learned internally; learn from other levels of

government and peers internationally; and work more strategically18 to:

• align DLT’s digital transformation efforts;

• better link data across jurisdictions and government departments;

• scale up more efficient and responsive public services with DLT;

• determine the next prototypes to cultivate BC maturity;

• develop a pan-Canadian vision to provide direction to users, service

providers, and Canadians.

17 many thanks to nRC’s John shannon for his insights on the Council’s experience with BC.

18 For instance, through the Treasury Board of Canada’s enterprise Architecture Review Board.

Improvements to

the BC-backed

government digital

services are

years away from

production.

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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Acknowledgements

This briefing was prepared for The Conference Board of Canada’s Industry

strategy and public policy Division. Funding was provided by Innovation, science

and economic Development Canada (IseD).

This briefing was used as a primer for The Conference Board of Canada’s

roundtable and webcast Enabling Digital Government with Blockchain, held on

February 28, 2018, in Ottawa. The briefing was written and researched by Dr.

Jean-Charles Le Vallée. For their comments on an earlier draft, the author thanks

John shannon, acting Director General, Digital Technologies Research Centre,

at the national Research Council Canada; marc Brouillard, Chief Technology

Officer of the Government of Canada at the Treasury Board of Canada

secretariat; workshop participants; and the Conference Board’s sabrina Bond

and Andrew pender.

The findings and analysis of this briefing are entirely those of The Conference

Board of Canada, not of the funder. Any errors and omissions in fact or

interpretation remain the sole responsibility of The Conference Board of Canada.

© The Conference Board of Canada. All rights reserved. Please contact cboc.ca/ip with questions or concerns about the use of this material.

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APPENDIX A

Bibliography

Delaware Office of the Governor. “Governor markell Launches Delaware

Blockchain Initiative: Reflects state’s Commitment to Innovation and

embracing the new economy.” news release, may 2, 2016. Accessed

January 29, 2018. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/governor-

markell-launches-delaware-blockchain-initiative-300260672.html.

Digital ID & Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC). Is

Blockchain the Answer to Corporate Registries in Canada? June

6, 2017. Accessed January 29, 2018. https://diacc.ca/2017/06/06/

is-blockchain-the-answer-to-corporate-registries-in-canada/.

Dutch Government, Blockchain projects. Blockchain. 2018. Accessed

January 29, 2018. https://www.blockchainpilots.nl/home-eng.

Gillis, maureen, and Alexandru Trusca. “Not There Yet”: Bank of

Canada Experiments With Blockchain Wholesale Payment System.

CyberLex, June 19, 2017. Accessed February 13, 2018. http://www.

canadiancybersecuritylaw.com/2017/06/not-there-yet-bank-of-canada-

experiments-with-blockchain-wholesale-payment-system/.

Guardtime. KSI Technology Stack. 2018. Accessed January 29, 2018.

https://guardtime.com/technology.

Killmeyer, Jason, mark White, and Bruce Chew. Will Blockchain

Transform the Public Sector? Blockchain Basics for Government.

Washington: Center for Government Insights, Deloitte University press,

2017. Accessed January 29, 2018. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/

dam/insights/us/articles/4185_blockchain-public-sector/DUp_will-

blockchain-transform-public-sector.pdf.

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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17

Appendix A | The Conference Board of Canada

Find Conference Board research at www.e-library.ca.

Krawiec, R. J., Dan Housman, mark White, mariya Filipova, Florian

Quarre, Dan Barr, Allen nesbitt, Kate Fedosova, Jason Killmeyer,

Adam Israel, and Lindsay Tsai. Blockchain: Opportunities for Health

Care. Deloitte. 2016. Accessed march 28, 2018. https://www2.deloitte.

com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/public-sector/us-blockchain-

opportunities-for-health-care.pdf.

national Research Council. “exploring Blockchain for Better Business.”

January 19, 2018. Accessed January 29, 2018. https://www.nrc-cnrc.

gc.ca/eng/stories/2018/blockchains.html.

OpenGov. How the Dutch Government Is Exploring Blockchain Use

Cases Through Many Concurrent Pilot Projects. January 4, 2018.

Accessed January 29, 2018. https://www.opengovasia.com/articles/how-

the-dutch-government-is-exploring-potential-uses-of-blockchain-through-

many-concurrent-pilot-projects.

Ramirez, elaine. “Could This Blockchain in Korea Be the First to

Connect an entire Country?” Forbes, August 9, 2017. Accessed February

13, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/elaineramirez/2017/08/09/

dayli-icon-blockchain-south-korea/.

Wilkins, Carolyn. “project Jasper: Lessons From Bank of

Canada’s First Blockchain project.” Coindesk, February 10,

2017. Accessed February 13, 2018. https://www.coindesk.com/

project-jasper-lessons-bank-of-canada-blockchain-project/.

Wood, eric emin. “City of Toronto’s Tracey Cook Believes the Future of

Licensing Lies With Blockchain.” IT World Canada, December 18, 2017.

Accessed February 13, 2018. https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/

city-of-torontos-tracey-cook-believes-the-future-of-licensing-lies-with-

blockchain/400111.

© The Conference Board of Canada. All rights reserved. Please contact cboc.ca/ip with questions or concerns about the use of this material.

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CAUTIOUs OpTImIsm

Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian Government Digital services

Find Conference Board research at www.e-library.ca. 18

APPENDIX B

Other Ongoing Government Blockchain Experiments

The following updates were provided through interviews. Thanks in

particular to the Treasury Board of Canada.

Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC)

since 2016, FInTRAC, the Canadian financial intelligence unit (FIU), has

been monitoring and assessing the potential impacts that widespread

uptake of BC technologies across the financial sector may have on

Canada’s ability to detect, prevent, and deter money laundering and

terrorist activity financing.

This ongoing analysis includes both an assessment of the BC

technologies that display the greatest vulnerabilities to abuse for illicit

purposes, as well as those that have the potential to enhance the

Canadian anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime.

Canadian Securities Administrators

The Canadian securities Administrators is taking steps to ensure

protection for consumers who invest in cryptocurrency offerings by tech

companies that are seeking to raise capital through initial coin offerings

(ICO), initial token offerings (ITO), and sales of securities of

For the exclusive use of Latitia Scarr, [email protected], Public Affairs Advisors.

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19

Appendix B | The Conference Board of Canada

Find Conference Board research at www.e-library.ca.

cryptocurrency investment funds. Concerns include the use of unethical

practices or illegal schemes and poor consumer understanding of the

risks involved.

Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)

IseD is working with the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI) to

understand how the government can use BC to improve its operations

and service delivery. The project will consist of four use cases examining

different sectors of the government.

As part of the project, the Canadian Intellectual property Office (CIpO)

will have a case study developed that seeks to understand how the

registration of copyright could leverage BC technology under the

constraints of current legislation and CIpO’s mandate.

Elections Canada

Interest in BC remains at the research level—monitoring initiatives which

address practical applications that might support voter list management,

secure identity management, and management of electoral geography.

Natural Resources Canada

The department is currently exploring the feasibility of using BC to serve

as a public registry for the disclosure of payments by companies under

the Extractive Sectors Transparency Measures Act.

Public Safety Canada

The department is monitoring advances in BC from a cyber security

perspective. The department’s focus is primarily on the various uses and

misuses of virtual currencies (extortion or blackmail).

Public Service Procurement Canada

pspC is defining a pilot that will use DLT to verify business organizations

in order to further enable self-service capabilities for partners on the buy-

and-sell platform.

The Receiver General at pspC is going ahead with a BC case study in

collaboration with IseD and BRI to potentially replace central accounting

functions and processes.

© The Conference Board of Canada. All rights reserved. Please contact cboc.ca/ip with questions or concerns about the use of this material.

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CAUTIOUs OpTImIsm

Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian Government Digital services

Find Conference Board research at www.e-library.ca.

Receiver General of Canada

The Receiver General of Canada is exploring opportunities to

receive, maintain, and manage records currently recorded in the

Common Departmental Financial system and/or the Central Financial

management Reporting system.

Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada

The Treasury Board and the Communications security establishment are

undertaking a detailed assessment of BC identity solutions.

For more information about this report, please contact:

Andrew Pender

Associate Director

Industry strategy and public policy

[email protected]

613-526-3280 ext. 467

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Cautious Optimism: Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian Government

Digital Services

Jean-Charles Le Vallée

To cite this briefing: Le Vallée, Jean-Charles. Cautious Optimism: Adopting Blockchain to Improve Canadian

Government Digital Services. Ottawa: The Conference Board of Canada, 2018.

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