Abstract
Inspired by Sir Mark Walport’s Beyond Blockchain report in 2016 Lord Chris Holmes of Richmond spearheaded a follow up report DLT for Public Good in 2017. Since then, a body of evidence has accumulated – EP DLT sandbox for example – including projects Lord Holmes has been directly involved with such as the Reducing Friction in International Trade (RFIT) programme, a pilot led by HMRC and the FSA exploring cross border compliance with Australian wine imports using DLT and analysed by the FSA and the OECD.
Lord Holmes is now working with departments and academic advisers to consider government applications, pilots, potential use cases and ultimately provide an extra layer of challenge and ideas on the future of DLT for public good. He kindly invited me to join a roundtable discussion that will take place tomorrow, Thursday 7th March 2024 in the House of Lords. As in-person participation was impossible for me this time, I was allowed to contribute with some notes in written form, that I am happy to share here.
My key recommendations are:
(1) Use public procurement to ensure public-good-informed DLTs are adopted. Outsourcing to private commercial providers would be a high risk.
(2) When public development of DLTs cannot be achieved, the Government should make sure that (a) the system is customized keeping in mind the specific risks and needs of public services; (b) the T&Cs are negotiated to make sure that data stays in the UK and is not used to benefit private interest and in ways that do not benefit citizens.
(3) Avoid technological determinism and only adopt a DLT solution where there is robust evidence of clear benefits for citizens. The risks for fundamental rights are high and unintended consequences have occurred and will continue to do so.
(4) Work closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, academics and civil society in order to address the issues related to illegal content present on the DLT, privacy concerns, and any other fundamental rights concerns.
Lord Holmes is now working with departments and academic advisers to consider government applications, pilots, potential use cases and ultimately provide an extra layer of challenge and ideas on the future of DLT for public good. He kindly invited me to join a roundtable discussion that will take place tomorrow, Thursday 7th March 2024 in the House of Lords. As in-person participation was impossible for me this time, I was allowed to contribute with some notes in written form, that I am happy to share here.
My key recommendations are:
(1) Use public procurement to ensure public-good-informed DLTs are adopted. Outsourcing to private commercial providers would be a high risk.
(2) When public development of DLTs cannot be achieved, the Government should make sure that (a) the system is customized keeping in mind the specific risks and needs of public services; (b) the T&Cs are negotiated to make sure that data stays in the UK and is not used to benefit private interest and in ways that do not benefit citizens.
(3) Avoid technological determinism and only adopt a DLT solution where there is robust evidence of clear benefits for citizens. The risks for fundamental rights are high and unintended consequences have occurred and will continue to do so.
(4) Work closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, academics and civil society in order to address the issues related to illegal content present on the DLT, privacy concerns, and any other fundamental rights concerns.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Rochester, NY |
| Pages | 1-3 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Apr 2024 |
Keywords
- blockchain
- distributed ledger technology