Why Australia needs to champion an open system for blockchain

American astronomer and educator Clifford Stoll wrote an article in 1995 called ‘Why the Web won’t be Nirvana’. It still gets passed around as an amusing discussion piece highlighting the doubts people had about the internet.

Stoll was sceptical about the web, especially “cyber business”: “So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month?”

The Clifford Stolls are still out there. You’ll find some of them these days expressing doubts about blockchain technology.

But plenty of very reputable and smart people have recognised blockchain could be the building block for something truly transformative, as revolutionary as the internet. This is why Australia should continue to play a leading role in its development.

Blockchain is still in its infancy (think internet circa 1995) and there’s work to be done in creating the infrastructure for it to underpin something as complex as the global financial system.

The basic concept behind blockchain is compelling. In simple terms, imagine giving money to a charity and then being able to see and verify for yourself where that charity has spent your donation. Financial and legal transactions become transparent, verifiable and incorruptible.

Governance issues like privacy, security, and interoperability will be paramount over the next few years, which is why the role Standards Australia has assumed at an international level to spearhead a technical committee developing standards for blockchain is so crucial.

“Leading the ISO blockchain committee will place Australia in the perfect position to help inform, shape and influence the future direction of international standards to support the rollout and deployment of blockchain technology,” Standards Australia CEO, Dr Bronwyn Evans, said last year.

To read more, please click on the link below…

Source: Why Australia needs to champion an open system for blockchain | Business Insider