Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
March 18, 2019 -- ADVFN Crypto newsWire -- Increased funding
for the development of blockchain technology has been an ongoing
process in various branches of the Australian government. Most
recently, a three way collaboration between the Minister for Trade,
Tourism and Investment of Australia’s government, put together a
development plan of a national blockchain roadmap and $100,000 of
funding from the Morrison Government. The initiative is made to
help position Australia’s burgeoning blockchain industry as a
global leader.
“The national strategy puts us on
the front foot in exploring how government and industry can enhance
the long-term development of blockchain and its uses. We will work
closely with blockchain and technology experts from industry and
academia to develop the strategy, as well as with CSIRO’s Data61 to
incorporate findings from their forthcoming future scenarios report
on blockchain.” - Minister for Industry, Science and Technology
Karen Andrews
The roadmap highlights a number of
policy areas including regulation, skills and capacity building,
innovation, investment, and international competitiveness and
collaboration. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) research arm Data61 already has study underway
regarding many of these topics.
The organization has also put work
into actively piloting blockchain systems. In September of last
year, CSIRO tested a blockchain network developed in partnership
with the University of Sydney that could process 30,000
cross-border transactions per second. The network utilized a novel
algorithm approach to proof-of-work called deterministic byzantine
consensus. Essentially, the network is able to complete
transactions after receiving a threshold of messages rather than
waiting for confirmations from nodes that are slow.
Funding Consensus
2019
The blockchain push in Australia is
taking a fully holistic approach. In addition to innovating in the
deeper aspects of the technology with pilot networks, they will be
using some of the funding as a form of first hand marketing. “In
addition, $100,000 funding will come through my department for
Australian companies to join Austrade’s Mission to Consensus in New
York in May, a landmark event for the blockchain industry,
demonstrating the Morrison Government’s commitment to boosting this
sector.” - Karen Andrews
This process began last May when
the Australian government also committed AU$700,000 (roughly
$521,000 at the time) to the Digital Transformation Agency. The
group would focus on blockchain applications and potential
integration with government services. But even prior, to this, the
Australian government has been working to get a handle on
cryptocurrency and blockchain technology regulation. In March 2017
AU$350,000 ($2,48,970) was pledged of to support the development of
blockchain standards over a four year period.
By: BGN Editorial Staff