UK Lawmaker Advises Government to Create Chief Blockchain Officer Position

UK Government For Blockchain Within Public Sector, But First Advices Hiring Chief Blockchain Officer

In a report released by City A.M. on Wednesday, July 4, 2018, Eddie Hughes, member of the UK Parliament suggested appointing “a public-facing chief blockchain officer” as being necessary for continuing onwards with introducing blockchain technology within the public sector and making the country a worthy competitor.

Some responsibilities were also outlined, which stated that the chief blockchain officer should take on the role of finding efficient strategies that would make the integration of blockchain within public services possible. In addition, the appointed member would have to do so while keeping the government’s expenses down by one percent.

Hughes’ interest in a chief blockchain officer has supposedly resulted from the augmentation in blockchain startups that want to establish themselves within the U.K by complying by the rules. It is UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) who released the report, and by looking at the statistics, it appears that almost 40 percent of the current 29 startups are willing to accept rules set in place and will eventually be directing their attention towards the distributed ledger technology (DLT).

This isn’t the UK government’s first efforts in increasing awareness and implementation of blockchain, as a similar attempt has been made some time in November. It is clear that the government is very much interested in becoming a competitor within the blockchain sphere.