UK government seeks blockchain to track student loans and grants

In a speech at a blockchain conference in London earlier this week, a senior British official said the government is looking at blockchain applications as part of its review of how public funds are tracked.

Matt Hancock, UK Cabinet Office minister and member of Parliament, told attendees that the conference was organized by the non-profit Digital Catapult and the Cryptocurrency Research Institute at Imperial College London to put the UK government at the heart of rebuilding public services for the digital age, and that blockchain will play a role in the coming changes.

Specifically, he suggested that the transparency of blockchain could be used to exert greater control over the disbursement of funds to research centers to help student organizations or individuals.

Hank said:

“We are exploring the use of blockchain to manage the allocation of funds. Monitoring and controlling the use of grants is very complex. Blockchain, with access to all parties involved, may be a better way to solve these problems.”

Blockchain has been on the Cabinet Office's agenda for some time. Last year, the agency suggested that it might use a blockchain system to support internal record-keeping. At the time, Paul Downey, technical architect for the Government Digital Service, said blockchain was one of several solutions being weighed.

Public Applications

In his speech, Hancock argued that the technology could provide governments with a publicly verifiable way to monitor the movement of money, inspired by Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin provides a distributed ledger that can be used to track transactions passing money from one entity to another,” Hancock said. “Where else could we use a distributed ledger? Think of the student loan company tracking money from the Treasury all the way to a student’s bank account. Or the Department for International Development tracking money spent by aid organisations.”

He also highlighted the UK government’s commitment to invest £10 million last year to fund research into digital currencies and blockchain, and went on to call on attendees to help the UK break new ground and build on the best of modern technology.