Chaining the building blocks for blockchain implementations in South Africa's public sector

Abstract

The emergence of the 4th industrial revolution has brought about several technological advancements in which blockchain fulfils a prominent role. To most people, the notion of blockchain is merely synonymous with the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin. However, blockchain is not a cryptocurrency per se, but rather provides the backbone for the existence of cryptocurrencies. Blockchain has multiple inherent and potential benefits, especially so for governmental use-cases with the governments of Dubai, Estonia and Gibraltar already investing in such implementations. Blockchain applications include healthcare, identity management, voting, and banking services, among others. Since records on the blockchain cannot be altered, it is deemed to be a secure option for many of these implementations. The contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides a description of the use of smart contracts, a form of self-executing contract, based on predefined rules between buyers and sellers. It describes how these contracts can potentially be used in South Africa to eradicate corruption in governmental processes by improving accountability and transparency. Secondly, it provides a blueprint of the use of Industrial Engineering tools and techniques to adequately design and implement blockchain use-cases, especially in the public sector.