Former Prime Minister of Haiti Laurent Lamothe spoke at a panel discussion on 'Demystifying Blockchain' hosted by Decoded, on 25th January 2017 at New York, explaining the benefits of blockchain technology and how it could have helped many of the challenges his government faced during his tenure.

He stressed that blockchain is ideal for government services and that governments need to embrace it as a vital tool for solving development challenges.

Lamothe emphasized that blockchain technology can be applied to a wide array of businesses and not just financial services. The applications of the nascent technology have potentials in any transaction involving different levels or stages of a hierarchy or process; from logistics to retail and even government agencies.

He stated that, if this was the case during his tenure as PM, cryptocurrencies could have facilitated payment to beneficiaries of the many social programs put like PSUGO and Ti-Maman Chéri and creating greater financial transparency. The peer-to-peer currency could also have been used as a tool for increased financial inclusion of the unbanked Haitians.

“Innovation is important in the development arena and blockchain requires a fundamental shift in mindset because the current regulatory framework aims to regulate the financial system through the access point of a central operator, regulator or management body,” he added.

He believes that the use of blockchain in government is more than speculation and the technology could make government tendering process and purchases more efficient, and reduce the potential for fraud and error.

“In fact, it (blockchain) will have a huge impact on the way we do business—in particular on the global tax system. It could be used to register and record property transactions, for example, or government-licensed assets, intellectual property, and even to make sure that a voter uses one vote only,” he mentioned. “Considering the pace at which organizations and governments are beginning to explore and test Blockchain, once the remaining challenges are tackled, the new technology could take off very rapidly.”

Last month in Estonia, NASDAQ that runs the country’s stock exchange, created an e-voting system based on the blockchain technology and also the government in Georgia announced a deal to develop a Blockchain-based land registry, last year.