Spain Urged to Boost Oversight Using Blockchain
Charlotte Yates
The Spanish government is being pressed to strengthen its oversight powers with the intervention of the blockchain technology.
The government should utilize the distributed shared ledger to manage their public administration more effectively, Popular Party, the country’s ruling party, said in its position paper submitted to the Congress of Deputies, the lower chamber of the parliament.
The party is proposing to “introduce Blockchain technology in the Spanish public sector with the aim of improving internal processes and provide traceability, robustness and transparency in decision making,” the party said in their proposal translated from Spanish.
It also calls for the development of blockchain through the public-private partnership to “favor secondary markets for goods and services that lower costs, increase productivity and encourage the creation of specialized employment,” as well as the training of people for using the technology “to improve the implementation.”
Incorporating blockchain in various initiatives such as administrative concessions, internal processes, or concessions “will encourage greater control, traceability, and transparency.” Aside from that, the utilization of this technology can generate extra revenue to the government by promoting new schemes of exchange of rights in different sectors including energy, infrastructure, logistics, and tourism.
“Moreover, the lawmakers recommended building public and private blockchain models “in order to favor secondary markets for goods and services that lower costs, increase productivity and encourage the creation of specialized employment,” the document stated.
“Therefore, we must promote the measures that are appropriate for this new concept of service exchange to survive and be introduced with force in the digital world in order to guarantee the security, efficiency and transparency of all transactions in the network,” it added.
However, the paper, which was submitted by 133 members of the leading party, did not outline any timeline or specific plans to roll out blockchain.
But it cited several entities that have invested in the technology including the BBVA with Coinbase, Bankinter with Coinffeine, or Santander with Utility Settlement Coin.
“Outside Spain, one of the main banks in Estonia has developed a wallet that uses Bitcoin to send free and instant money and other countries such as Germany, the United States and Japan have already launched this new model of digital transactions,” the proposal said.
Aside from blockchain, the paper touched on the European Commission’s plan to involve its member countries to have a coordinated deployment of the 5G networks by 2020 at the latest. This will be achieved by supporting innovation and prepare its institution on or before their target implementation date.
This will be possible because of the support and encouragement from European countries “and the industry a global and integrated approach to the standardization of the 5G and working in a coordinated way, therefore, all the countries of the European Union.”
“Throughout this process, the role of the public sector as a promoter of solutions based on 5G technology and the private as a developer and promoter will be fundamental,” the paper noted.
