ABSTRACT
Blockchain offers a new approach to enhancing transparency and collaboration between governments, business and citizens. IBM opt for blockchain, as do many other actors, but aside from the specifics of the technology involved it is important to remember that the ethos of both transparency and trust advocated is being produced by private self-interest on behalf of the public interest. Notions of blockchain as a neutral 'tool' at the disposal of governments or regulators, where regulatory legitimacy and the ability to call regulators to account based on their deployment of the technology, as well as on many or all subsequent failures within the regulatory regime, are all important factors. Regulators will generally support technological interventions to automate compliance if it can be shown to achieve greater operational efficiency. The chapter also shows that reasonable prevention procedures were in place at the time the offence was committed in order to avoid inter alia potentially unlimited fines.
