Can Bitcoin be effectively used to curb corruption?

[tosmartak]

I came across an article online that is quite interesting and it goes thus;

"Bitcoin brings a lot of hope to the table. The digital currency, which was launched with an aim to destabilize crony capitalism, certainly sounds revolutionary. And it has indeed shown how a money can survive only on public consensus, without needing government and central banks. It is now being used for plethora of purposes: to buy essay, goods, products online, as well as a mean to simplify cross border remittance.

The real beauty of Bitcoin, however, is its underlying public ledger system known as blockchain. The trustless system automatically executes, confirms and stores transactions on a public database; it leaves no scope for a middlemen or government or any financial authority to take participation in the ongoing transaction, ensuring that the system remain authority-free, hence decentralized.

Bringing the power of blockchain technology to government offices sounds like a far-fetched fantasy, but the open source nature of Bitcoin could make it possible. Imagine deploying public funds entering into such an open system, where money could be allocated to other government subsidiaries, and be used for many public welfare initiatives.

With every transaction going into a public directory, watchdogs can easily trail money to check on its conclusive spending. Private and public sector banks, as well as income tax authorities, could utilize blockchain to create private chains. These chains could then be attached to the main ledger as its branches. It will save money in terms of data handling as well.

If every single government office house enrolls into such a system, there would be no corruption. But again, all policymakers need today is intention."

What do you think? Do you think something like this can actually work effectively if implemented? What are your views or other ideas?

[Xester]

I came across an article online that is quite interesting and it goes thus;

"Bitcoin brings a lot of hope to the table. The digital currency, which was launched with an aim to destabilize crony capitalism, certainly sounds revolutionary. And it has indeed shown how a money can survive only on public consensus, without needing government and central banks. It is now being used for plethora of purposes: to buy essay, goods, products online, as well as a mean to simplify cross border remittance.

The real beauty of Bitcoin, however, is its underlying public ledger system known as blockchain. The trustless system automatically executes, confirms and stores transactions on a public database; it leaves no scope for a middlemen or government or any financial authority to take participation in the ongoing transaction, ensuring that the system remain authority-free, hence decentralized.

Bringing the power of blockchain technology to government offices sounds like a far-fetched fantasy, but the open source nature of Bitcoin could make it possible. Imagine deploying public funds entering into such an open system, where money could be allocated to other government subsidiaries, and be used for many public welfare initiatives.

With every transaction going into a public directory, watchdogs can easily trail money to check on its conclusive spending. Private and public sector banks, as well as income tax authorities, could utilize blockchain to create private chains. These chains could then be attached to the main ledger as its branches. It will save money in terms of data handling as well.

If every single government office house enrolls into such a system, there would be no corruption. But again, all policymakers need today is intention."

What do you think? Do you think something like this can actually work effectively if implemented? What are your views or other ideas?

It is very feasible since the blockchain is like a public ledger wherein you can trace transactions coming from an address. It can be done if all government agency as well as every government official must have a registered and official bitcoin address so that when he makes purchases it will appear on the blockchain and the people can monitor how are their taxes are being used.

[gregory51gosh]

Here's a good article: http://www.zmescience.com/research/technology/bitcoin-blockchain-corruption-04232/

and very good opposite topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1865814.260

[panju1]

Nope. Let us say the government transfers X bitcoins to a contractor.
There is no way to say that the contractor performs work up to the standard. Similarly there is no way to say that kickbacks have not occurred.
The money trail is just one aspect.

[ozaeri]

I came across an article online that is quite interesting and it goes thus;

"Bitcoin brings a lot of hope to the table. The digital currency, which was launched with an aim to destabilize crony capitalism, certainly sounds revolutionary. And it has indeed shown how a money can survive only on public consensus, without needing government and central banks. It is now being used for plethora of purposes: to buy essay, goods, products online, as well as a mean to simplify cross border remittance.

The real beauty of Bitcoin, however, is its underlying public ledger system known as blockchain. The trustless system automatically executes, confirms and stores transactions on a public database; it leaves no scope for a middlemen or government or any financial authority to take participation in the ongoing transaction, ensuring that the system remain authority-free, hence decentralized.

Bringing the power of blockchain technology to government offices sounds like a far-fetched fantasy, but the open source nature of Bitcoin could make it possible. Imagine deploying public funds entering into such an open system, where money could be allocated to other government subsidiaries, and be used for many public welfare initiatives.

With every transaction going into a public directory, watchdogs can easily trail money to check on its conclusive spending. Private and public sector banks, as well as income tax authorities, could utilize blockchain to create private chains. These chains could then be attached to the main ledger as its branches. It will save money in terms of data handling as well.

If every single government office house enrolls into such a system, there would be no corruption. But again, all policymakers need today is intention."

What do you think? Do you think something like this can actually work effectively if implemented? What are your views or other ideas?

The problem is that there are tumblers out there so it won't stop corruption but it can provide accountability, for instance the coins go to some unknown place you can demand an explanation from the person involved and if they can't properly explain it then you know something isn't right.

[KennyR]

Till governments support corruption whatever methodologies were implemented people will be continuing to do the same mistake in one or other way. Some might say that when things go digital corruption can be stopped. This is simply a delusional statement. When things go digitalized the ease of corruption can be felt all around from common men to higher political personalities.

[Sonystra]

Corruption is immortal. There are many ways how to enrich themselves at the expense of the state Treasury. I'm afraid that someday under the guise of fighting corruption will cancel the cash and there will only be electronic money. The corrupt will find a way out and we didn't.

[Bagaji]

Is not possible for Bitcoin to be used in curbing corruption because when you go by definition of corruption which has the element of dishonest conduct you will come to a conclusion that bitcoin is far away from the instruments of curbing corruption rather another easy way of moving stolen funds from one country to another without restriction.

[Prohodimec]

Is not possible for Bitcoin to be used in curbing corruption because when you go by definition of corruption which has the element of dishonest conduct you will come to a conclusion that bitcoin is far away from the instruments of curbing corruption rather another easy way of moving stolen funds from one country to another without restriction.

Get out wrong but it seems to me that Bitcoin has a lot of circumstances contributing to the development of illegal activities and the first of these features is the opportunity to avoid taxation in any country, when the crypto currency is still illegal. But corruption is such an infection that corrodes the state from within and it seems to me that this is not going to help anything.

[DrGuns4Hands]

It is impossible for cryptocurrency to be used in curbing corruption because corruption is an element of dishonest conduct. Bitcoin / cryptocurrency is far away from that. Corruption is immortal. At some point, I'm afraid of what is going to happen in the future. Now, bitcoin has a lot of circumstances contribute with the development.

[MingLee]

While a system like that has some of the potential to curb corruption, there's a high likelihood that anyone in a position of power can just make another address (and if they really care under a false identity) and they can use that as a way to skip past all the other checks. It never has to go into their own wallet, just somewhere that they can access it.
Shell companies also kind of wreck the dream posted in the OP, as, even though companies can be investigated, enough layers or contracts given to companies that authorities have their hands in would be all that's required to game the system.

[olushakes]

Since transactions can be traced to individual address then same thing can be said in the case bank transfers because government no longer pays in cash but corruption still exists. I feel bitcoin would do more in supporting that bad omen in the society in the sense that when people can still steal money meant for the development of the society in a case where it can be traced to their bank accounts carrying their home addresses how much more when they cannot even be traced in the case of bitcoin. Considering ravaged corrupted countries as still far from developing technologically.

[iluvpie60]

It can help curb corruption by being transparent. If every public official in govt had to use btc we would see what they are doing and whre the money goes and all that. Would help keep them honest for sure.

[favila]

It both brings transparency by revealing where funds are located as well as making it easier to hide funds. If you know an address belongs to a specific person you can demand proof of what they spent their funds on and track whether they are telling the truth very easily.

[eternalgloom]

It can help curb corruption by being transparent. If every public official in govt had to use btc we would see what they are doing and whre the money goes and all that. Would help keep them honest for sure.

They would still need to check out any suspicious transactions and do a full scale investigation on them. Something like that would definitely cost a lot of money.
And I'm sure that people would still be able to cheat the system.

[Jully Bells]

Blockchain as we already know, is a public ledger that stores all the recent and past transactions related to the bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency based on this technology. All these transactions are stored in a number of blocks that make up the entire blockchain. Every block is crammed with the recent transactions and it is then added to the blockchain as a permanent database. Whenever a block is completed, a new one is generated. The prime aspect of blockchain that helps fighting corruption is its transparency. The blockchain not just stores all the transactions in a ledger but also makes it accessible to all the nodes in the network thereby providing a transparency to the users. This transparency can be helpful in keeping an eye on the government officials and refraining them from making a wrong use of their power. It can be done by cramming all the financial transactions of the government officials in the blockchain where each block represents an individual bank statement. And since the ledger is shared with all the participating nodes, it is almost impossible to forge or destroy. So in this way, it can be effectively used to curb the widespread corruption in various countries. The only problem with the blockchain technology is the size limitation. And it is only due to this size limitation that it’s very difficult to use the similar blockchain based ledgers in bigger countries like India. Because if we do so, then it would require enormous computing power and larger storage space. But if are able to deal with this storage problem, then blockchain can definitely change the face of a country.

[mrcash02]

Bitcoin can curb a part of the corruption there is today. That corruption executed by the government and its agents. But if the BlockChain technology is implemented on the governments, the citizens will must pay a price for it. The regulamentations would be stronger and people would have to follow them without complainments like it's now today. So I don't know what would be worse...

[Gozie51]

In my view, I believe corruption is in human nature and endermic, so corruption is not going anywhere. I mean, the story of the lost bitcoins that has not been returned is still in our memories - that is corruption. Some people breed in corruption and would always look for means to hoodwink others.

[bitbunnny]

Corruption is something that is in human nature and exists from the begining of the world and can't be terminated. And it's not only govornemnt that supports it. Even Bitcoin can't help with that because it also can be subject of corruption and corrupted people can use it.

[Fortify]

Corruption breeds and moves freely in the shadows, if there was a public blockchain for government transactions then it could help in highlighting where money is being badly spent. You need a free press as well to bring down public condemnation and a strong court system able to fire people who are doing wrong.