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Blockchain vs Corruption

This evening, my Instagram story was full of updates from my friends in Indonesia. It was all about a guy named Setya Novanto, the head of People’s Representative Council (or also known in Indonesia as the DPR), has been suspected in a corruption case. What’s special about this guy, is that he faked his own car accident, when polices were looking to arrest him. That is why it was like echoing as a joke on my social media. However, corruption cases are pretty common in Indonesia, so Indonesian people are used to that.

Due to my twitter assignment, I started learning about block chain a couple of weeks ago. Well, this might sound old-fashioned now, but really, this technology is going to be something special. Many tech-engineers predict that block chain is going to be as big as the launch of internet was a couple years ago.

A block chain is a digital decentralised ledger that is used to track digital currencies such as bitcoin and all transactions of this currency around the world. As we all know, the old concept of a ledger as a super thick book that no one would ever reads and eventually it would end up in some secretive company shed.

What distinguishes block chain from other transactions is that the digital ledger is not managed by a single organization or party. The general ledger record is publicly distributed and managed by thousands of computers in the world at the same time. Block chain really embraces the ideas of openness and transparency. You can see all the transaction happening every second around the world, it's actually quite impressive.

Block chain is considered as a vital part of a solution to prevent corruption from occuring. I hope the Indonesian government is ready for it. For instance, if the Indonesian government uses block chain to record all forms of agreements and transactions, it would be impossible for someone to commit corruption, without no one noticing. Everyone can see what you do, how much money you own, and how you spend that money, your tax transactions, etc. Those are becoming public secrets because everything is clear and transparent. The other advantage that block chain offer is the possibility to do direct transaction, which will cut the middle-man.


Despite all the advantages block chain offers, there are still certain countries that ban its function. The reason why they ban its function is still unclear to me, because in my opinion, block chain is a good solution. Luckily it is not banned in Indonesia, although there are still some concerns that this technology cannot become commercially viable in short time. However, many leading global companies are now involved in this technology development project. It is quite clear that block chain is a futuristic technology and that we will encounter new aspects to the human life in the future. Let’s wait and see what happens.

Well, if you want to take a look of my favourite article about blockchain, feel free! 
I'll see you in my next post!

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