German parliamentary group wants Blockchain integrated into Public and Administrative services

Governments all around the world are slowly starting to realize the massive potential that the blockchain technology holds. With the like of Australia and Singapore already a step ahead, others don’t want to be left behind as well. Most recently the German CDU and CSU have shared their plans of promoting blockchain technology on a large scale, Finanzen, a German media outlet, reported on June 25^th.

The Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed database that stores and links transactions in a chronological order in such a way that is unchangeable, a typical example would be how Bitcoin works, as per the reports, the CDU/CSU group has plans on using blockchain technology to enhance public service tasks such as administrative services, electronic health records, document protection or a foundation register. Basically the CDU and CSU union has proposed the formation of a new form of company that should be linked to an alternative commercial register and the system should enable a digitally encrypted identification system that will be handled by specially trained notaries in order to avoid money laundering and also give smaller companies the security to integrate this new technology. The group believes that this will be a German innovation as these do not exist anywhere else.

The plan, however, isn’t limited to administrative or public services. The Union also has grand plans of developing a state cryptocurrency in the form of an e-euro which will be designed to be a stablecoin, and just like the Euro, will be administered and regulated by the central banks. These “should spend via commercial banks crypto-tokens that handle them as demand deposits,” the report stated.

The notion of creating a state cryptocurrency was supported by was highly supported by the blockchain experts of the parliamentary group and also by Nadine Schön, leader of the deputy parliamentary group. However, The European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt stated that it does not comment on statements made by individual parties. A spokeswoman further stated that digital currencies for central banks are not an option for the ECB since “cash is widely used in the European legal framework for accreditation’s.”

The Bundesbank referred to a speech by its President Jens Weidmann, who warned that digital central bank money could have “potentially serious effects” on the banking system and during times of crisis, financial stability “might be more vulnerable than it is today.”