The Government of Ireland is hosting a blockchain hackathon this week to identify and evaluate practical use cases for blockchain technology in public services.
BlockAthon Ireland, taking place from January 25 to 27, 2019, seeks to explore how blockchain can enhance public service delivery by improving processes, speeding development, enhancing citizen experience, increasing efficiency and reducing errors. The event is organized by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in partnership with the Department of Finance and is being held at the Innovation Academy in Dublin.
“Blockchain technologies have introduced new economic, business, social and technical models with the potential to make a significant impact on both business and society,” said Paschal Donohoe TD, Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.
“As part of Our Public Service 2020, our government has committed to driving innovation in policy design and service delivery while promoting a culture of innovation across the public service. We believe this can be partially achieved through novel mechanisms, new platforms and alternative channels.”
“Consulting and engaging experts on innovation from across the public sector, academia and the private sector to share ideas is a valuable action under the strategy, and this hackathon offers an opportunity to do so.”
Ireland’s Our Public Service 2020 plan emphasizes accelerating the digital delivery of public services. The government has pledged to support innovation in policy design and service delivery and to foster an innovative culture across public service organizations.
During the hackathon, participating teams will be presented with public service business cases and real problems to solve over two days. The use cases and challenges include:
- Tracking medical devices within Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) systems;
- Monitoring and tracking state aid;
- Verifying Central Statistics Office (CSO) data while preserving appropriate security and privacy controls;
- Providing transparency and traceability of transactions related to Ireland’s transport infrastructure;
- Improving quality and eliminating inefficiencies, duplicated work and human error in the current processes used by the Programme for Government (PfG) office to collect information from all 17 government departments about their PfG commitments.
Teams will brainstorm and prototype potential blockchain-based solutions. At the conclusion of the hackathon, a prize will be awarded to the best solution. The winning project will be submitted for further evaluation for possible formal development and implementation.
Expert stakeholders from Ireland’s blockchain community have been invited to mentor and judge the teams, encouraging cross-sector collaboration among government, academia and the private sector. Mentors and judges include representatives from EY Ireland, Ambrosus and the University of Dublin.
The Department of Finance has been actively exploring blockchain since launching an intra-departmental working group on blockchain and digital currencies in March 2018. That working group aims to provide clarity for businesses, consumers and investors on technology-related issues and to promote Ireland as an innovative destination for blockchain projects.