UK government continues its blockchain lead

There is something deeply ironic about the fact that blockchain, a technology that has been nurtured and fostered by an anarchic and anti-government community, has become something so sought after by government. This is happening all around the world – the US state Vermont published a comprehensive report earlier this year [PDF] – but it is the UK that has continued to lead the way.

In essence blockchain is simply a record of transactions, like a double-entry book keeping system or ledger, which can be universally shared and uses encryption as a means to validate correct, unchangeable entries.

Despite being in its early days it has already seen enormous inroads in fintech and has also been tipped as a massive – perhaps over-hyped – game changer elsewhere.

Today the UK government’s lead in the field was solidified with news that Credits  – which has previous form with the Isle of Man government – has been awarded a contract to supply its Blockchain-as-a-Service offering to the UK public sector. This will come via the Government Digital Services' Digital Marketplace and sees distributed ledger technology (DLT) gain a formal place on the G-Cloud 8 framework agreement.