Blockchain is an innovative distributed ledger technology which was first introduced in the design and development of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Blockchain is an amalgamation of various innovations, with a clear business value. Blockchain enables a shared ledger among the various parties involved in business transactions, which acts as the single source of truth. Blockchain eliminates the need for a central entity to validate the transactions. Blockchain can be used in both Permission needed and Permission less models. These models have applications in various domains such as education, governance, finance & banking, healthcare, logistics, cyber security, media, legal, power sector, etc. Globally and nationally, various efforts are being made towards implementing Blockchain based applications. Proof-of-concepts (PoCs) and pilot deployments have been successfully carried out. In order to reap the benefits of this technology, there is a need for a national level strategy on Blockchain technology.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has prepared a draft framework for the use of blockchain technology in government services and intends to use it in the areas of property record keeping, digital certificates, power distribution, health records as well as supply chain management. All the applications of blockchain technology are likely to be explored by the government under the leadership of the IT ministry.
◾️Framework:
- The draft, called the National Strategy on Blockchain, is also likely to explore the possibility of use of the technology for vaccine and medical supplies logistics management for future purposes.
- Virtual and digital currencies such as bitcoin, however, have been kept out of the ambit of this framework and are unlikely to be included in the near future.
- Since the blockchain technology operates on a distributed ledger system which is owned by everyone, participants can read, write, or make changes to the ledger.
- In order to make the technology better suited to the needs of the government and that of India, the national framework has therefore suggested that blockchain could be set up in one of the four architectures, namely, public and permission less, public but with permissions, private and permission less and private and with permissions.
- The framework draft has also cautioned about certain issues involved with the adoption of blockchain technology such as replication of data on all nodes, lack of appropriate skills and human resources in the country as well as threat from rogue nation state actors.
- Blockchain data is stored on every node on the network and hence privacy is not an inherent feature that Blockchain traditionally provides.
- The data should be stored in such a way that the privacy of an individual is not compromised and appropriate consent mechanisms should be adopted in line with data protection laws.
What efforts have been made so far to implement the Blockchain Technology?
Meity: MeitY has supported a multi-institutional project titled “Distributed Centre of Excellence in Blockchain Technology” with C-DAC, Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), Hyderabad and Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Mumbai as executing agencies. As part of this initiative, agencies have carried out research on the use of Blockchain technology in various domains and developed Proof-of-Concept solutions. Blockchain technology based solution for property registration has been developed and is piloted at Shamshabad District, Telangana State. Proof-of-Concept solutions have been developed for enabling Cloud Security Assurance, Central Know Your Customers (CKYC) and trade finance. Generic Blockchain based Proof-of Existence (PoE) Framework has been developed to enable PoE for digital artifacts, used to check the integrity of academic certificates, sale deed documents, MoUs, etc. By using PoE framework, a solution has been developed to authenticate academic certificates and is being piloted at the C-DAC Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) and also for issuing the participation certificates while conducting online seminars and workshops. MeitY has initiated a project on design and development of a National Blockchain Framework (NBF) for creation of a shared Blockchain infrastructure and offering Blockchain as-a-Service (BaaS).
NIC: NIC along with NICSI has established a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Blockchain technology. The objectives of the CoE are to accelerate adoption and deployment of Blockchain technology in Government, execute projects focusing on different use cases, pilot deployment, offer Blockchain Platform-as-a-Service to ramp up the design and development of solutions, offer consultancy services and capacity building. CoE is focusing on collaboration across Government, public & private sectors. The application areas identified and developed through CoE are blood bank, Digidhan, Public Distribution System, land registration, GST Back Office and Excise Management System
NeGD: NeGD has released an approach paper on National Strategy for Blockchain which provides details about the Blockchain application domains, challenges in adoption of the technology, societal impact, role of the government and principles to guide national strategy and is currently working on e-Attestation using Blockchain for the State of Karnataka.
C-DAC:
Successful pilot deployments and PoCs on Blockchain by C-DAC have given confidence on
C-DAC’s vision to design and develop Blockchain technology solutions to provide trusted &
auditable shared infrastructure for cross domain application development and large-scale
deployment. C-DAC’s mission on Blockchain technology includes:
(a) National Blockchain
Framework for cross domain applications addressing the performance, scalability,
interoperability, security and privacy challenges;
(b) eSign integration with Blockchain
based proof-of-existence (PoE);
(c) development and large-scale deployment of
applications.
Academia: IIT Kanpur is working on Blockchain technology focused on developing e-governance solutions. The project spans across three phases which comprises of feasibility report on the technology, development of protocols and research on validating the property of tamper resistance which is prominently used in Blockchain and application development. Ripple has launched University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI). Ripple has chosen IIIT Hyderabad as one of the early university partners to promote Blockchain research and setup a Center of Excellence in Blockchain. Through this COE, IIITH is working on Blockchain research challenges related to security, exploring use of game-theoretic techniques, and evolving next-gen Blockchain. The team is also looking at using Machine Learning in Blockchain.
NITI Aayog: NITI Aayog is working on various Blockchain use cases. NITI Aayog in collaboration with Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (GNFC) has developed a Blockchain based system for fertilizer subsidy. The team has also partnered with PwC and Intel to optimize supply chain for the fertilizer subsidy. The application demonstrates the utilization of Blockchain features such as tamper-proof and transparency for efficient movement of fertilizer across the value chain and reduction of time to activate subsidy. Several transactions related to challans, claims and invoices are recorded on ledger in this Blockchain implementation.
Govt. of Telangana & Govt. of Tamil Nadu: Telangana and Tamil Nadu have released the policy documents towards adopting the Blockchain technology. Telangana Government is also actively promoting the Blockchain technology. Various use cases have been successfully developed under Blockchain District initiative of Telangana State. As per Blockchain Report 2019 of NASSCOM Avasant India, different states across India have initiated Blockchain based use cases. Land registry, farm insurance and digital certificates are the top three use cases.
Banking Sector: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is exploring on applying Blockchain technology in banking domain. Mahindra and IBM are jointly collaborating on supply chain management solutions. State Bank of India (SBI) has associated with commercial banks and financial institutions for Blockchain based application pilot. Yes Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank are also adopting Blockchain in their banking business.
IDRBT: IDRBT has released a whitepaper describing the roadmap for the adoption of BCT to banking and finance in India via 3 steps: (a) Intrabank: a private Blockchain for the banks internal purpose; (b) Interbank: Implementation of PoCs and testing them; (c) Central bank: for initiating suitable efforts towards digitizing the Indian Rupee through BCT. They have also released a Blueprint of Blockchain Platform for Banking sector with a focus on architecture, governance and technology aspects for a business network leveraging Blockchain.
Capacity Building:
Government of India has started a Future Skills Prime program
(https://futureskillsprime.in/standalonetechnology/blockchainspecifically) for upskilling
and reskilling in the domain of Blockchain to address the need for growing the talent pool
in the country through NIELIT and C-DAC.
How Blockchain technology is being used around the world:
Around the world many countries have developed platforms and services using Blockchain technology
and many retailers offer Blockchain-as-a-Service to customers.
1. China's Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) program aims to help companies
and individuals supply Blockchain apps quickly and cheaply. BSN holds a
a number of developer tools that help develop applications that are highly focused
in smart cities and digital economy.
2. China has developed a Blockchain-based screening program for the smart city
infrastructure. This program will provide a unique global ID for Chinese sages
cities, which are intended to improve communication and data sharing between these cities. China
redesigned Blockchain enabled Notary Service.
3. The European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) aims to use Blockchain and distribute it
ledger technologies to develop a reliable, secure and robust European Blockchain
Services Infrastructure (EBSI) to meet the highest standards in terms of
collaboration, privacy, internet security and control over the implementation of policies.
4. Innovative Signature Infrastructure (KSI) is a type of Blockchain designed in Estonia. This
technology is used in the Estonian government to prove electronic authenticity
records. They also use the X-Road, which is an open source exchange of data
layer. X-Road enables a separate organization to exchange information securely.
5. The United Arab Emirates has a Smart Dubai program, which aims to be the first city
fully powered by Blockchain in 2021 and upgrade everything from health care once
traffic management education and environmental sustainability.
6. In the US, food and drug testing to address the problem of anonymity once and for all
security in the processing of health data using Blockchain. In the UK, Food Standards
The center uses Blockchain to track meat distribution to improve food
NATIONAL BLOCKCHAIN STRATEGY
Department of Electrical and Information Technology 16
traceability.
7. The Brazilian government is focused on the Ethereum platform for diversity development
applications that include voting. Brazil also focuses on bidding for public contracts with
government online bid solution to ensure safe and transparent deals
agricultural applications, student certificates and student performance tracking.
8. Chile uses the Ethereum platform to provide transparency to the power grid by tracking
data and related fees. Switzerland offers digital ID through Ethereum
court.
9. Canada uses the Ethereum platform to bring transparency to spending
government grants. Sweden is focused on holding local deals with Ghana
land registration and cadastral register based on Blockchain to collect local taxes
over them.
10. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) focuses on using Blockchain
technology in the financial and technical fields. Blockchain technology is used
allow cross-border payments. They are working on designing a solution
to protect health care data and smart contracts are accepted by Insurance
companies.
11. Zug, Switzerland, is the first place in the world to accept Bitcoin tax payments
objectives. They have successfully developed a Blockchain-based voting system as well
created the Blockchain TaskForce, which directs companies to launch
Framework for Blockchain.
12. The Samsung Blockchain Wallet powered by COSMOCHAIN Blockchain has improved
CosmeeDApp for purchasing content using cryptocurrency. When a company is used
information provided or created by customers, information providers receive prizes
by using Blockchain in a completely transparent way.
13. LG launches Blockchain platform with digital authentication applications,
public tokens and supply chain management.
14. Amazon Managed Blockchain, Microsoft Azure Workbench, IBM Blockchain, Oracle
Blockchain and BlockappsStrato are some of the Blockchain services offered.
(*source: MeitY)
Posts
0 Comments