NRC Partners with Bitaccess on Blockchain Explorer based on Ethereum

In a report, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) revealed that it built an Ethereum blockchain explorer. The Canadian government agency announced that the explorer is now hosted at its Research Assistance Program (IRAP). IRAP hosts the Ethereum blockchain explorer on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) enabled with services provided by Bitaccess, a Canadian Blockchain Company.

The agency said, using IPFS ensures web application are unalterable and can be accessible in the far future. According to NRC, this is possible irrespective of the online status of the original host. Blockchain company Bitaccess,a partner in developing the Ethereum blockchain explorer mentioned that; the explorer allows users to search the Ethereum blockchain for published grants as well as contribution data.

NRC is optimistic that its experiment with blockchain will provide usefulness regarding exploring the potential of the technology,

“These are early days, but NRC IRAP’s experiments with blockchain are expecting to provide constructive insight into the potential for this technology and how it may be in use for more open and transparent operations for public programs”.

Blockchain to Enforce Transparency in the Canadian Government

In January this year NRC under its IRAP program launched the Canadian Government’s first trial of the public blockchain. The trial executed on the ethereum blockchain was aiming at building a more transparent administration of government contracts. After launching the January 2018 program NRC reportedly continued to explore additional application in blockchain technology.

Therefore, IPFS plans to develop more permanent web storing multiple copies of data. The technology caught international attention with its abilities to synchronize financial data from the government and broadcast to the public. Bitaccess Co-founder Moe Adham states in a blog that his company is helping to enable constituents to participate in the verification and validation of public information.

Ensuring transparency in government business cannot be enforced by third-party blockchain systems alone as government technocrats can feed wrong information to the system. A level of trustworthiness and a sense of patriotism still remains prerequisites in eradicating corruption in governments.