Australia's courier service explores blockchain identity

Rage Comment : Blockchain is the underlying technology of Bitcoin, and its essence is a distributed ledger. Its characteristics include decentralization, transparency, traceability, and immutability. All these characteristics make it the best way to save data. In such an Internet age, the security of personal identity information is of particular concern to people. Australia Post is the largest express delivery service company in the country and a state-owned enterprise. Its exploration of blockchain technology shows the Australian government's attention to blockchain technology. In addition to Australia Post's blockchain identity exploration, Outlier Ventures' P2P reception application MoneyCircles also provides blockchain identity authentication services. The Estonian government also uses blockchain technology to establish an ID card system and personal medical record management. In addition to the personal identity authentication system, Chronicled also uses blockchain technology to provide brand product authentication services. It can be seen that the application field of blockchain as a distributed ledger is very wide.

Translation: Annie Xu

A large Australian express delivery service company has begun exploring blockchain applications.

Australia Post, which had revenue of A$6.4 billion (US$4.75 billion) in 2013-2014, is exploring the use of blockchain technology in identity verification, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Australian post CEO: Ahmed Fahour

Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour told the AFR business conference this week:

“The future is the era of digital identity authentication, so if you want to know who I am, I can tell you right away. Many people are exploring blockchain applications in the financial industry, but blockchain actually has a wider range of applications.”

Although Australia Post is a major player in the domestic passport business, offering digital identity services is a boon to the company.

Australia Post is not the only company in the country to publicly develop blockchain applications. Late last year, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) announced that it was exploring the use of blockchain technology to replace traditional market infrastructure.

Afterwards, ASX acquired a 5% stake in Digital Asset Holdings for US$19.5 million.

At the conference, AFR and ASX CEO Elmer Funke Kupper said that blockchain technology could save billions of dollars in operating costs.