The global blockchain market is expected to increase by 80% between 2018 and 2023, from $1.2 billion to $23.3 billion, according to ReportLinker.

The most significant advantage of blockchains distributed ledger is reduced operational cost and streamlined efficiency which provides transparency, reliability and authenticity. Blockchain technology is undoubtedly here to stay and will change the face of business as we know it in the next few years. With our training and consulting, the Blockchain Academy prepares both the private and public sector for this disruption.

Outcomes

The outcome of this training is to provide attendees with a general overview of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

The course provides a good foundational knowledge of how cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology work, what they can be used for and why they are viewed as being so innovative and disruptive.

The training provides an overview of some important use-cases for blockchain technology in the public sector.

The session will help attendees understand the importance of this technology in terms of building and using permissionless technology.

Module 1: Blockchain: What and Why

• The evolution of money
• History of Bitcoin
• How financial systems and banking works
• Live bitcoin transaction demo

Discussion: Ledgers
Think about ledgers in your own industry. These can be financial ledgers, asset registries, event logs, timesheets etc.
Answer the following questions:

• Who writes to this ledger?
• Is this information duplicated?
• Does everyone who keeps a copy of the duplicated ledger trust each other (think about the transaction of Bank A → Bank B.
• Why did we need a central bank in the middle?)
• Is this ledger immutable? i.e Can a historic record be changed and what is the cost of doing that?

Discussion: Trust

• Think about trust in your daily life. Who do you trust when doing a EFT?
• Who do you trust when sending a meme via WhatsApp? How is the trust charged for? What will happen when the trust is broken?
• Who do you trust when buying something at Woolworths with cash? And what do you trust those entities with? (Question: How would this trust change if the SARB had a transparent monetary policy?)
• Define trust and value in your work.
  Where and why is this trust important? What do you achieve with this trust. How much does it cost you to generate this trust and what do you charge your customers for it? How difficult is it for a competitor to duplicate this trust you provide?Now define the trust model of bitcoin. Think about the live transaction demo we did.

Module 3: Use-Cases

• Time stamping
• Payments, remittances and financial inclusion
• Digital currency/payments
• Insurance
• Transparency, audit and fraud reduction
• Digital assets and conveyancing

Discussion 3

Can you use some of the existing applications within your industry? What would the benefits be?

Public sector benefits for example:

• Secure storage of government, citizen and business data
• Reduction of labor-intensive processes
• Reduction of excessive costs associated with managing accountability
• Reduced potential for corruption and abuse
• Increased trust in government and online civil systems

When do you think a blockchain would be an inappropriate solution?