Can Bitcoin reduce corruption in governance?

[iBaba]

My interest in politics and governance has driven me into wondering and asking if Blockchain technologies can be used to eliminate or reduce corruption in governance?

I believe that the invention of new technologies, in most occasions, do come along with opportunities to both efficiency and fairness. Therefore, Bitcoin should be able to offer some opportunities for the Government, to reduce corruption, for instance, in terms of transparency in Public Procurements and tracking of Land registries, amongst many others.

I wish to leave the discussion open so that I can get a birds eye-view from experts on this forum, who will bring in purposeful elucidations that can expand the scope of discussion.

Bitcoin should be able to proffer solutions to some of the inefficiencies and leakages in our government (tax authorities) including in the tax system. How can we take advantages of this fine Blockchain technology to achieve a corrupt-free society?

[Gyfts]

The biggest corruption of modern, so called "democratic," government are culpable for are the theft of economic liberty from their constituency. Serving nothing but their own greed. I don't think it's possible to achieve a corrupt free society. Putting yourself in a position unreliant on the corrupt systems is a better solution.

If you start with the notion that economic systems are inherently corrupt, you would find that Bitcoin relieves dependency of the traditional economic systems ran by the government. Of course that's not fair presumption to make, but seeing as nearly every major currency is a sinking ship, self inflicted no less, it may be a prudent one (perhaps the system is not responsible, but individuals  )

[Hispo]

I am a believer that Bitcoin and other decentralized and open source chains can provide a platform which could help much against the corruption in many societies. The most obvious approach would be to mandate politicians and public servants to receive their salaries in Bitcoin or stable coins, make their master public keys public, so anyone can audit their holdings and the movements of their salaries.

Blockchain technology can also be used to make voting completely transparent, through an intelligent contract, people could vote using their own keys and the results could be open, transparent and completely auditable.

The challenges on this implementations would be on associating keys to one's identity and actually pushing so these standards become a reality, which is unlikely to happen in the short term, due to obvious reasons.

The corrupt do not have reasons to embrace anti-corruption mechanisms.  

[swiftxi]

Bitcoin is already reducing corruption all over the world , providing them with a secure anonymus way of transfering massive chunks of wealth at any time or place.

[SamReomo]

If implemented with care the Bitcoin and blockchain technology can actually work very well to reduce the corruption levels in many nations. But it is not going to be useful to eradicate corruption from a nation as no technology can do that. The corruption is built into the minds of the corrupt people and unfortunately these days most democrats are corrupt by nature.

However, in some cases if blockchain technology is incorporated into a government system the probability of doing corruption in such nations might be a difficult job for those democrats. Specially if all the activities related to money should be done through blockchain. Incorporation of such system is not possible currently because those corrupt democrats hold complete power over the decisions of a nation.

[Merit.s]

It is impossible for bitcoin to reduce corruption because corruption is from human mentality and activities. If the government is corrupt,and they know that bitcoin can reduce corruption, it will not be accepted by the government. This is exactly what is happening presently in our society, the government wants to have control over their citizens financial spending and some countries have chose to banned bitcoin because it wouldn't give them such access. Since bitcoin is only an alternative currency,the corrupt and oppressive government wouldn't adopt it because they can live without bitcoin. Bitcoin is only a digital currency used by man but corruption is an habit that has eaten up the bone of man. On the other hand bitcoin can also enhance corruption due to its anonymous feature.

[paid2]

I live in a country where corruption is pretty high, and where everyone with big money/big business knows that some of their money will have to go into the pockets of some shitty civil servant if they don't want to see their project put on hold for obscure reasons. I imagine that BTC would help them more than penalize them, as managing large amounts of money in BTC is much easier than with cash or shady bank transfers between two "companies" as they do here.

I don't think BTC can help in any way unfortunately, even if BTC allows the absence of a trusted 3rd party, and has a transparent ledger, it is not enough.

Corruption is like prostitution, as long as humans are human there will be corruption, in different forms, with different names, but it will always be there.

It is not by changing the method of payment that we will eradicate corruption, it is by changing human nature and that is not possible.

[Anguwa]

Bitcoin should be able to proffer solutions to some of the inefficiencies and leakages in our government (tax authorities) including in the tax system. How can we take advantages of this fine Blockchain technology to achieve a corrupt-free society?

Yes, Bitcoin and Blockchain technology should provide a permanent solution to corrupt governments, and we will have transparency in all aspects of government; however, the question is whether the government will adopt the system to provide a permanent solution. No, because they do use the corrupt medium to steal some public funds.

[Hispo]

I live in a country where corruption is pretty high, and where everyone with big money/big business knows that some of their money will have to go into the pockets of some shitty civil servant if they don't want to see their project put on hold for obscure reasons. I imagine that BTC would help them more than penalize them, as managing large amounts of money in BTC is much easier than with cash or shady bank transfers between two "companies" as they do here.

I don't think BTC can help in any way unfortunately, even if BTC allows the absence of a trusted 3rd party, and has a transparent ledger, it is not enough.

Corruption is like prostitution, as long as humans are human there will be corruption, in different forms, with different names, but it will always be there.

It is not by changing the method of payment that we will eradicate corruption, it is by changing human nature and that is not possible.

It is not about a total eradication of corruption, but rather finding new mechanisms, technologies and techniques to reduce it as much as possible. We all are aware that even in the most transparent societies there are crooks who take advantage of the system. Even if some blockchain technology in your country does not end the corruption but rather reduce it 35% down, I would call that a victory and more encouragement to continue working on that topic. Don't you agree?

[Coyster]

Bitcoin is already reducing corruption all over the world , providing them with a secure anonymus way of transfering massive chunks of wealth at any time or place.

I'm afraid that as much as you think politicians use Bitcoin to perpetrate their fraud, they do not. Bitcoin uses a public ledger that can be seen by everyone and possibly traced, and they (politicians) also steal quite a lot of money, running into millions/billions which would definitely be difficult for them to convert when they need to (if it's held in Bitcoins). Thus they stick to their old ways of money laundering, which is to use fiat/cash, they can always hide as much cash in their well secured homes, or pull some strings with their local banks or even international banks, who'll be more than ready to accept the money without asking questions, afterall they need it to also fund their own personal trade.

[Wiwo]

My interest in politics and governance has driven me into wondering and asking if Blockchain technologies can be used to eliminate or reduce corruption in governance?

I believe that the invention of new technologies, in most occasions, do come along with opportunities to both efficiency and fairness. Therefore, Bitcoin should be able to offer some opportunities for the Government, to reduce corruption, for instance, in terms of transparency in Public Procurements and tracking of Land registries, amongst many others.

I wish to leave the discussion open so that I can get a birds eye-view from experts on this forum, who will bring in purposeful elucidations that can expand the scope of discussion.

Bitcoin should be able to proffer solutions to some of the inefficiencies and leakages in our government (tax authorities) including in the tax system. How can we take advantage of this fine Blockchain technology to achieve a corrupt-free society?

First, you must get something clear, Bitcoin vs blockchain are two different things and from the title of this thread you mentioned Bitcoin but in the thread, you mentioned blockchain which os more appropriate for thos discussion, bitcoin may not be able to reduce or eliminate corruption in governance but blockchain technology can be use for a number pf things that could help eliminate corruption.

While some countries ban Bitcoin but accept blockchain technology since it can be used in several sectors of the economy to improve the overall performance of such sectors with highly verifiable and transparency dealings in those sectors that could eliminate corruption.

[o48o]

My interest in politics and governance has driven me into wondering and asking if Blockchain technologies can be used to eliminate or reduce corruption in governance?

I believe that the invention of new technologies, in most occasions, do come along with opportunities to both efficiency and fairness. Therefore, Bitcoin should be able to offer some opportunities for the Government, to reduce corruption, for instance, in terms of transparency in Public Procurements and tracking of Land registries, amongst many others.

I wish to leave the discussion open so that I can get a birds eye-view from experts on this forum, who will bring in purposeful elucidations that can expand the scope of discussion.

Bitcoin should be able to proffer solutions to some of the inefficiencies and leakages in our government (tax authorities) including in the tax system. How can we take advantages of this fine Blockchain technology to achieve a corrupt-free society?

Tehcnically blockchain tech could remove corruption, but when people talk about removing corruption they usually don't understand that it will need surveillance and that applies to everyone, not just the organisations they don't trust. And to use bitcoin blockchain as something as important as you said, it would require bitcoin / fiat pairs keep being legal, so that chain would have enough incentives for people keeping it secure.

Meanwhile permissionless and immutable transactions are poison to aml laws so i am not as sure about the future of it as people in here generally are. Thankfully transactions are transparent, otherwise we would have different set of problems in a different level.

Bitcoin is already reducing corruption all over the world , providing them with a secure anonymus way of transfering massive chunks of wealth at any time or place.

Bitcoin is far from anonymous and how exactly moving "massive chunks of wealth" in permissionless way has anything to do with removing corruption?

[Zlantann]

I am a believer that Bitcoin and other decentralized and open source chains can provide a platform which could help much against the corruption in many societies. The most obvious approach would be to mandate politicians and public servants to receive their salaries in Bitcoin or stable coins, make their master public keys public, so anyone can audit their holdings and the movements of their salaries.

Corrupt politicians would gladly make their earnings or even bank statement from their salary accounts public because fraudulent funds can not be kept there. They have different bank accounts hidden in the names of their relations and cronies. Some of them are bribed with cash f and they keep these funds in their homes and other secret safes. Others launder the money and create accounts in tax havens with fake companies. Politicians are fantastically corrupt.

Blockchain technology can also be used to make voting completely transparent, through an intelligent contract, people could vote using their own keys and the results could be open, transparent and completely auditable.

This idea will be a welcome development because it could guarantee free and fair elections. But poverty and illiteracy will be the biggest impediment, especially in the developing nations. Common manual voting is a big problem for most people in my country, adding technology will disenfranchise many people that are not conversant with science and technology. This blockchain voting system might be very expensive and many countries will not be able to afford it.

[blockman]

I'd say Blockchain that shall reduce corruption in governance and that is because if most of their transactions are viewable publicly through a public Ledger or Blockchain then that means that they need to spend and allocate budgets that are assigned to them to the programs that they need to put it. This is the power of the public people those want transparency but are we going to see something like this? Very unlikely, most of the governments are attached to the old way of keeping records and don't want to get some intervention with newest technology that could affect their personal matters and reasons.

[Hispo]

I am a believer that Bitcoin and other decentralized and open source chains can provide a platform which could help much against the corruption in many societies. The most obvious approach would be to mandate politicians and public servants to receive their salaries in Bitcoin or stable coins, make their master public keys public, so anyone can audit their holdings and the movements of their salaries.

Corrupt politicians would gladly make their earnings or even bank statement from their salary accounts public because fraudulent funds can not be kept there. They have different bank accounts hidden in the names of their relations and cronies. Some of them are bribed with cash f and they keep these funds in their homes and other secret safes. Others launder the money and create accounts in tax havens with fake companies. Politicians are fantastically corrupt.

Blockchain technology can also be used to make voting completely transparent, through an intelligent contract, people could vote using their own keys and the results could be open, transparent and completely auditable.

This idea will be a welcome development because it could guarantee free and fair elections. But poverty and illiteracy will be the biggest impediment, especially in the developing nations. Common manual voting is a big problem for most people in my country, adding technology will disenfranchise many people that are not conversant with science and technology. This blockchain voting system might be very expensive and many countries will not be able to afford it.

So in your opinion the blockchain technology would not make much difference in those aspects? is what you are trying to say?
You have got fair points but even though I like blockchain and its applications on the real world to fight corruption, I can also recognize the challenges or weaknesses of it.

In the case of voting, this can be a system or which could be tested first in countries with high education and management of technology by the population, if the results are good then I would say that it would be worth it to educate people in developing countries about it, again I know that is a very unlikely scenario, but not impossible.

[Smartvirus]

Corruption is a part of human nature. Ain't kithing taking that away from humans except, someone with good morals haven't to chose to look above selfish interest and see things gor the greater good.

In fact, should the government sort out gor means of going private and silent in there corrupt practices, cryptocurrency might be some tool to aid them but the fact that bitcoin transactions could still be traced and should exchanges comply to request by investigators over fraudulent allegations, they will make sure to be wear.

[Similificator]

It would be quite difficult for this to happen because in the first place, both the government and this industry cannot really coexist that well yet. This is because bitcoin and its users want privacy and anonymity at least to a considerable extent like how it is now if not entirely anonymous while the government wants transparency and control over the things it governs in order to maintain order and safety (at least that's what they say as an excuse). The perspectives of both sides are just too far apart making them seem like water and oil. Who knows though, maybe in the future both sides would find some common grounds that would make both sides benefit giving equal compromises that are fair and acceptable for everyone. Until then, I don't think both sides cooperating would work out, let alone thinking about Bitcoin reducing corruption in the government. That is, if I'm not 6 feet under yet to witness that future.

[yhiaali3]

Yes, of course, it is possible, so governments do not like Bitcoin because of its transparency and decentralization as well.

They want to control all the financial transactions of the citizens, but at the same time they want their financial transactions to be completely hidden from the public.

Therefore, corrupt governments do not want Bitcoin because it exposes corruption, and powerful governments do not want Bitcoin because it is decentralized and makes them lose control.

[Synchronice]

My interest in politics and governance has driven me into wondering and asking if Blockchain technologies can be used to eliminate or reduce corruption in governance?

I believe that the invention of new technologies, in most occasions, do come along with opportunities to both efficiency and fairness. Therefore, Bitcoin should be able to offer some opportunities for the Government, to reduce corruption, for instance, in terms of transparency in Public Procurements and tracking of Land registries, amongst many others.

I wish to leave the discussion open so that I can get a birds eye-view from experts on this forum, who will bring in purposeful elucidations that can expand the scope of discussion.

Bitcoin should be able to proffer solutions to some of the inefficiencies and leakages in our government (tax authorities) including in the tax system. How can we take advantages of this fine Blockchain technology to achieve a corrupt-free society?

And do you really think that people come into government to fix things? No, people come in government for power and to abuse this power for their own personal benefits. Bitcoin uses blockchain and absolutely every btc transaction is recorded on blockchain, so, it means that every transaction of theirs will be available for everyone to see but definitely it's possible to make tracking very hard.
But the problem is that people in government can't control Bitcoin because of its decentralized nature, so, for power abusers, everything that's centralized, is very unattractive and something to get rid of.

[Myleschetty]

Therefore, Bitcoin should be able to offer some opportunities for the Government, to reduce corruption, for instance, in terms of transparency in Public Procurements and tracking of Land registries, amongst many others.

Bitcoin is not the solution to everything and the solution to the information you provided here is blockchain, not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the currency and don't forget that the crypto tumbler site can be used to prevent the transparency of BTC transactions.

How can we take advantages of this fine Blockchain technology to achieve a corrupt-free society?

This can happen through the adoption of decentralized blockchain services.