Consumers utilize and accumulate massive amounts of personal data in their everyday lives. From financial records to purchasing history to geographic location data; they depend on this data to deliver personalized online services and experiences. 

When it comes to government services, however, citizens often experience the exact opposite, finding themselves having to create new accounts for every government department and inputting the same information repeatedly. Why is the public sector experience so different, and why isn’t data shared across the government?

The “how” is easy. The technology exists. Giving people control over their own data can have a dramatic impact on their quality of life. Not only is this better for individuals, but it also helps the government to run more efficiently.

Many believe the solution can be found in blockchain technology. It can be secured so that the user can choose to share it only with a select group of people or institutions, in much the same way that people already share data between the apps on their smartphones. Blockchain technology allows information to be recorded in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change or hack. It is increasingly being used to validate the authenticity of data in various applications. Organizations can digitize physical assets and create a decentralized immutable record of all transactions, making it possible to track assets from production to delivery or use by the end user.

Due to the fact that cryptocurrencies and other real-world applications of blockchain technology are becoming more and more mainstream, the amount of transactional data stored within various ledgers becomes huge. Blockchain and big data analytics are two unlikely peas in a pod to address these concerns.

The next year looks good for blockchain technology. Within institutional finance, it will play a critical role in improving speed, efficiency, and transparency while correcting complex financial market infrastructure problems. 

Data Harmony is Access Innovations’ artificial intelligence suite of tools that leverage explainable AI for efficient, innovative, and precise semantic discovery of new and emerging concepts, to help find the information you need when you need it.

Melody K. Smith

Data Harmony is an award-winning semantic suite that leverages explainable AI.

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.