Dr. Craig Wright talks blockchain adoption in the Philippines

Blockchain continues to be an integral part of many lives. In fact, with many of its use cases and utility, blockchain is becoming one of the most popular among emerging technologies. Aside from its more widespread use for Bitcoin, blockchain can also be utilized for government transactions and data management, thanks to its immutable and transparent design.

However, regarding in-depth knowledge and understanding, Dr. Craig Wright thinks “everyone in the world has a long way to go.”

Dr. Wright attended an event in Manila, Philippines with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) building in August.

“There are a lot of educated people here in the Philippines. There are many people trained in ICT. And as soon as people start to understand the technology and implement it—and some of that is going to happen when we start building—then everything will just explode,” Dr. Wright told CoinGeek Backstage reporter Claire Celdran on the sidelines of the event.

Talking about nChain’s projects in Bataan, Dr. Wright said nChain will help pave the way to “make the government more efficient and more accessible.”

Earlier this year, the Provincial Government of Bataan signed an MOU with nChain to lay down the framework for establishing a digital platform for the province—streamlining its current systems and procedures. nChain, with Block Dojo Philippines, is also set to train startups and entrepreneurs about blockchain and other emerging technologies in January 2024.

“When citizens can access government services easier and have records; and when the government has sort of records of all their interactions [they] can ensure people pay taxes when they’re meant to and can control what’s happening and regulate the economy. We’re going to find that everything works better. And in doing that, it’s going to bring access to people who don’t currently have access to a lot of services,” Dr. Wright explained.

nChain is also building a blockchain infrastructure that aims to scale into millions and eventually billions of transactions per second. With this infrastructure, Dr. Wright explains that as the blockchain scales, the cost of transactions decreases and becomes more efficient—making the technology more secure and allowing thought leaders to compete not only in the Philippines but globally.

Looking back at the nChain Blockchain Immersion Program (nBIP) series of events, Wright said that the conversations on protecting consumers in this industry are critical areas as the country has been experiencing a lot of scams lately. Wright thinks that few reasons lie in the lack of identity or the anonymity of those who commit such cybercrimes.

“Blockchain only works when there’s attribution. So you need identity. So when we bring all that back in, and we integrate it with the government services, we’re doing like identity services. Then we’re going to have people attributable for the things they do. And that’s going to enable government to actually monitor and ensure that things are honest,” Dr. Wright concluded.