Can blockchain salvage a country from corruption

[aioc]

Our country, the Philippines, has been plagued by corruption stemming from flood control issues, largely due to the massive floods it experiences.

The President of the Philippines, in his yearly State of the Nation speech, exposed these corrupt government officials, which prompted the president to launch a website Report it to the president

And from this website, hundreds of ghost and substandard projects come in involving corrupt government officials and elected officials, from mayors to senators.

Because of the massive corruption, so many bills and proposals are now being prepared to stop corruption

From budget deliberation

Bam Aquino eyes use of blockchain technology to ensure transparency, accountability in national budget

To infrastructure projects implementation

DPWH, BCP ink ties for use of blockchain technology for infra projects

To budget release budget release

DBM taps blockchain for budget release system

Do you think blockchain is what we need to help our country overcome massive corruption?

[DiMarxist]

I don't think that, this is a very good idea to use block chain technology to tackle corruption in a country. Corruption is a human product of the human mind and any thing that should be done to change that should be geared towards changing the mental and thinking capacity of the individual. BlockChain technology was developed to solving financial problems but using it to solving corruption related problems is what I don't see happening because, corrupt politicians and individuals will always look out for ways to beat the process so that they can continue to steal money.

[aioc]

I don't think that, this is a very good idea to use block chain technology to tackle corruption in a country. Corruption is a human product of the human mind and any thing that should be done to change that should be geared towards changing the mental and thinking capacity of the individual. BlockChain technology was developed to solving financial problems but using it to solving corruption related problems is what I don't see happening because, corrupt politicians and individuals will always look out for ways to beat the process so that they can continue to steal money.

You have a point but it will deter officials from commiting corruption because of the transparency brought by blockchain, they can see the budget, where it went and how it spend.

Corrupt officials will always find a way but they find it hard because the record is open and cannot be ommited.
It may not totally stopped corruption but at least they will have a hard time finding loopholes or they may not find  loopholes at all.

[Ambatman]

Even if the government creates a Blockchain for this it would still be centralized
And face the same issue it's currently facing, corruption.
They Would need something like Bitcoin but they would never want something like Bitcoin
Because they can't control such.

Reminds me of The Day of the Jackal series where a billionaire wanted to create such a tech for transparency
And he was assassinated.

[coupable]

I don't think so either. I have always thought how valuable would be to use decentralized ups derived from blockchain technology to achieve various goals. Yes of course it can help to fight corruption at some level but this would definetly not be the only sole solution. Corruption is a human made practice that will always find the way to deceive and trigger.

Today technology provided more transparency even without blockchain, however we don't see it practical in many fields because corrupt people (mainly politicians) refuse to implement many features under many pretextes, and this in itself is corruption that can't be fought by technology.

[Gozie51]

It can only help to reduce the incident of corruption but it will never eradicate it because government always have bad egg that will make sure to compromise the system and gradually, the vices will start to spreed. It can reduce it if all government projects and contract awards are mendated to go through blockchain then it can be transparent and accessible by all and that will make it difficult to be manipulated but if it is only for selected government contracts then blockchain won't be the remedy.

[kotajikikox]

Do you think blockchain is what we need to help our country overcome massive corruption?

It is the first step yes. It will help but the corruption is so well within the system that it will be so hard to overcome it in only a few years. To expect a cleaned out government under one administration would be crazy. But at least using the blockchain can help kickstart the fight against corruption by promoting transparency. Which is what the government is lacking.

[Cookdata]

Blockchain can do just that, even countries that people are looking at to be the good looking country, if Blockchain is accepted, there is going to be a lot of drama going on to be reveal but because of peace is why some things are left the way they are. Everything will becomes transparent, not only the government will become transparent even the drug everyone take will be visible on the blockchain but think the government isn't run when everyone is involved and some people need to be kept in the dark.

How many have you seen news that government want to spend money on blockchain and after a couple of months or years, they just go silent like it was never mentioned to have something of that nature, it is going to hinder the growth of what many politicians are going to do and it may even close future corruption and stealing of public funds, only people that are outside the government most often supported this developments.

[coin-investor]

The government needs to take action to appease its people, who remain angry due to the flooding they are experiencing. They need people prosecuted, and they don’t want this to happen again. Blockchain is a good option for this.

Corruption will always be there, and not everything can be resolved by blockchain. The government should enact stringent laws to prevent corruption.

Currently, several bills are being introduced that integrate blockchain technology into the government, enabling the tracking of funds and ongoing projects. This is a good start, as the people want to see progress on preventing these corrupt officials from stealing their money.

The people are watching the development of blockchains and prosecution, and the government needs to deliver or there will be massive protests again.

[EFS]

Blockchain or any other system doesn't prevent corruption. As long as government administration depends on people, there will be corruption. No matter how good the laws are, there will always be a way to bend them. As long as the human factor exists, you can't really prevent corruption. There is no need to be optimistic about this.

[uneng]

Bitcoin Blockchain means transparency, but not every Blockchains work like that. Keep in mind governments wish to launch their own Blockchains to run CBDCs, so they track citizens' funds and transactions closely. In no way it's a fix for corruption. The problem is much deeper and involve every sectors of society, from the top to the bottom of the pyramid.

Politicians are usually pointed as the cause of the problem, although people ignore the fact they are just a reflex of the society and the people of the country who vote for them. Truth is that if you have corrupt politicians, it's most likely due to the fact there is a corrupt population voting for them.

[Lida93]

 Alright seems like a welcome move but how many highly top placed politicians has been reported and punished, or hasn't there been any reports of any yet. In my country we have three different anti-graft agencies to battle corruption and promote transparency in governance, and all these agencies answers to tjw President of tje country. But guess what. It's like corruption lives and dines in the country's government.

Instead it's the opposition parties that they uses this agencies to go after and I am thinking this might likely be what could happen with this development against corruption in your country. In a corrupt circuit of people it's difficult eradicating corruption, not even blockchain can save the situation.

[Fiatless]

Alright seems like a welcome move but how many highly top placed politicians has been reported and punished, or hasn't there been any reports of any yet. In my country we have three different anti-graft agencies to battle corruption and promote transparency in governance, and all these agencies answers to tjw President of tje country. But guess what. It's like corruption lives and dines in the country's government.

Instead it's the opposition parties that they uses this agencies to go after and I am thinking this might likely be what could happen with this development against corruption in your country. In a corrupt circuit of people it's difficult eradicating corruption, not even blockchain can save the situation.

One of the benefits of blockchain technology is that it will promote transparency and openness in the use of government funds. But this will not solve all the problems.  The government steal through contracts and other shady deals.The price of some projects is usually inflated so that they can steal the excess.

In my country, the amount of crude drilled and sold is not accurate because some government officials steal part of the proceeds. The only cure for corruption is to elect good leaders. Bad leaders will seek ways to steal regardless of how you record the government budget.

[robelneo]

Leadership quality and political stability are the two key factors that can save a nation. Blockchain is a good method for ensuring transparency, but if government leaders and officials are corrupt, they can find ways to circumvent the law to their own advantage.
Unfortunately, the Philippines' politics is very unstable, and the country is highly divisive; it is on the verge of another chaotic period. The people need to support the right leader; that's the only way to salvage a country from corruption

[AmoreJaz]

Leadership quality and political stability are the two key factors that can save a nation. Blockchain is a good method for ensuring transparency, but if government leaders and officials are corrupt, they can find ways to circumvent the law to their own advantage.
Unfortunately, the Philippines' politics is very unstable, and the country is highly divisive; it is on the verge of another chaotic period. The people need to support the right leader; that's the only way to salvage a country from corruption

Whatever financial method will be, the fate of the nation depends on the officials governing its people. So if they will still have corrupt officials, even with blockchain, I don't think it can save the country. The direction of the country depends on the politicians governing the country not the method of financial transactions. We have seen and witnessed that already in so many progressive countries like Singapore, HongKong and other countries. It is not the financial system but the people managing its  people. Blockchain will just make their business fast, easy and transparent but it won't eradicate the corruption from the officials as they will always find a way how to go around even deploying these crypto transactions.

[UchihaSarada]

Do you think blockchain is what we need to help our country overcome massive corruption?

It is possible and impossible, depends on each nation and government there.

It is possible if government is voted by their citizens under Democracy, they have to serve their citizens as best as possible in order to be supported and voted again in a next national election. In such nations, blockchains can be recognized as tools for governments to do better things for their nation and citizens. They can proactively apply blockchain or they must do it under massive request from their citizens.

It's impossible if governments in non democracy countries feel that they have no reasons to serve their citizens, and recognize that the people have no power to force the government and their leaders down.

[SmartGold01]

This could be hard to tackle because humans are too tricky in nature and even though blockchain is being deployed for utmost transparency there would still be a means to outsmart the system and moreover, blockchain is tied with financial systems and not to monitor humans behaviour or operations and movements.
For sure, blockchain can only be effective in the financial aspects which I think they could also implement a way to siphon money from the country or state.

[bettercrypto]

Under the current administration in the Philippines, I don’t think it’s the right time for them to implement blockchain, because it’s obvious that the president of this country is corrupt.
That kind of corruption wouldn’t happen if he didn’t tolerate it. He even claims there’s no “blank” in the GAA, but there clearly is and yet he still signed it.

It’s possible that someone advised him that the issue would soon be exposed and that it would inevitably point to him as the main cause and reason why corruption is rampant in the country. So what he did was get ahead of the situation he made it look like he was the one who discovered the anomaly. In short, he washed his hands clean and tried to distance himself, even though he’s actually the mastermind behind it all, since he was the one who signed it.

Now, all the investigations that are happening are being carried out according to his direction. For all we know, they might even use blockchain as a cover-up for their corruption.
Because before they even record it on the blockchain, they’ve probably already separated what they’ve stolen. Then they’ll just say, “Look, it’s recorded on the blockchain see,
we didn’t take anything.” You see the logic in what I’m saying?

[Kelward]

Even if the government creates a Blockchain for this it would still be centralized
And face the same issue it's currently facing, corruption.
They Would need something like Bitcoin but they would never want something like Bitcoin
Because they can't control such.

Reminds me of The Day of the Jackal series where a billionaire wanted to create such a tech for transparency
And he was assassinated.

Blockchain technology can go a long way to minimize corruption in a country but we know that it's not enough to eradicate it. Like you rightly said such Blockchain will be centralized and it means that there could be possibilities of manipulation while computing data into it. It is not possible to totally stop corruption because you cannot stop wickedness. What a country can do is put measures in place to detect corruption and have adequate punishment for offenders.

The irony in most societies is that the people that are supposed to fight corruption are themselves corrupt and by shielding corruption they are protecting themselves.

[Fortify]

Do you think blockchain is what we need to help our country overcome massive corruption?

As long as it is implemented in an open and transparent way, a blockchain ledger can be a very effective tool for reducing government corruption. All parts of the tender and procurement system would also need to be tracked in the same way, because there is no point tracking the contract when all the processes outside of that can be corrupted. Keep in mind as well that there will be a lot of internal pushback to implement such a system, because it may see some people losing their dirty money income and they will find ways to block it. As long as the framework is well thought out, then tracking government contracts in this way seems like a very sensible system, but it may take decades before it gets there.