The U.S. Government recently expressed some interest in the use and application of the blockchain technology in the upgrade potential on the country's library systems. Days ago, it was announced that the U.S. government awarded a $100,000 grant to a group of researchers looking to apply blockchain to public library systems.
"The San Jose State University School of Information iSchool will investigate ways that blockchain technology can be used by libraries to partner with other organizations and to support city or community goals. Blockchain technology is a shared digital/electronic ledger featuring a constantly updated list of transactions. It is supported by a peer-to-peer network that may be either public or private. This technology has the potential to help libraries develop a distributed metadata system; facilitate better digital rights management; and create a protocol for supporting community based collections. The proposed National Forum would bring together 20-30 technical experts in libraries, blockchain technology, and urban planning to discuss ways that blockchain technology can advance library services to support city or community goals. The resulting commentary from a project blog, national forum, and conference and the survey data will be evaluated and included in the project's final report, which will be available online. The recommendations will serve as a guide for both large and small, urban and rural libraries to implement blockchain technology or consider other directions." (
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In times when governments block and ban various cryptocurrencies and their usage (just like what China recently did and can do in the coming days), it is nice to hear that the US government is still believing what the blockchain can do for many of our public institutions. We are then hoping that what the Chinese can be doing will be the opposite of what the US would adopt. As what I have read somewhere, invest on what the Chinese is banning because that can be where the money is.
