The blockchain technology is starting to become “mainstream.” Not only it is being applied by financial institutions, educational organization at all levels, cargo shipping companies, payment protocols, e-commerce sites, medical and imaging centers, and other commercial ventures, but most recently, governments are starting to realize the vast potential it holds as a high-end solution for diverse people´s daily everyday problems.
Patrick Byrne, who is currently Overstock.com’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO,) has identified the blockchain technology as a hugely helpful resource for governments around the world, saying that it can make them “superefficient and incapable of being bribed.” Overstock.com is a worldwide famous retail store.
Byrne’s statements came in an interview with MarketWatch on February 12th. The entrepreneur stated that government services need to modify their structure in many levels, which creates a perfect setting for the intervention of the blockchain technology as an efficient solution.
A Set of Applications
According to Byrne, these authorities need to start “building government-as-a-service, a set of applications and companies that, between them, can bring blockchain to different services that governments provide,” eventually making governments superefficient, inexpensive and incapable of being bribed.”
He cited a controversial example. “We could step into Venezuela with six laptops and create not only a functioning society but arguably one with the most advanced government systems in the world. We could bring them a central bank on the laptop. Everyone in Venezuela downloads a free app, and suddenly you have the most advanced monetary system on the planet.”
Overstock.com, Inc. is an American-based internet retailer with headquarters in the state of Utah. Initially, it was conceived as a platform that sold only surplus and returned items on a web-based e-commerce model. The firm still sells some closeout merchandise (like home decor, furniture, bedding, and others,) but it now sells new merchandise as well. It was founded in 1997, 21 years ago.
Byrne is, according to report, eager to finalize a contract with multiple sovereign nations in the not so distant future, with the intention of achieving a radical “overhauling” of government-related services.
Taking Advantage
The Overstock.com retailer announced back in January that it is going to ay business taxes in the state Ohio, following the news that it accepted Bitcoin payments just a few weeks ago. Ohio will use the OhioCrypto.com taxpayer platform for that matter.
At that moment, the executive stated that a proper legal framework and the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies by governments will be two of the most crucial developments in the industry, if achieved. He says that is “the best way to ensure the U.S. does not lose our place at the forefront of the ever-advancing global economy.”
Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard Professor of Economics and Public Policy, observed back in December that governments might regulate and appropriate emerging technologies like cryptocurrencies, because a coordinated global regulation would look to “stamp out privately constructed systems” at some point.
“The right way to think about cryptocurrency coins is as lottery tickets that pay off in a dystopian future where they are used in rogue and failed states, or perhaps in countries where citizens have already lost all semblance of privacy. It is no coincidence that dysfunctional Venezuela is the first issuer of a state-backed cryptocurrency (the “petro”).”
By Andres Chavez
