SINGAPORE—The founder of Arab-backed firm Locus Chain Foundation Pte. Ltd. believes blockchain technology can help Asian countries like the Philippines fight terrorism and illegal migrants.
“The element of transparency can be used by governments—it’s being used by Korea—to identify which citizen has a criminal record or, in this case, is engaged in terrorist acts,” SeJung Kim told the BusinessMirror after a news conference promoting the company-sponsored inaugural summit here on Wednesday.
SeJung explained a government can start a private blockchain technology to ensure its bona fide citizens are protected from criminals.
She cited a project by Seoul that seeks to come up with pure information on the identity of its citizens and identify the identity of non-Korean citizens traveling in and out of its borders.
“That is one application of blockchain technology: government can manage the entry and exit of people,” SeJung said.
Doing so, she added, can make “it much easier to protect people from terrorists and criminals.”
During the news conference, Locus Chain Cofounder for EU and Middle East Division Khalfan Saeed Al Mazrouei said blockchain can also help governments to stop corruption, to run after companies that try to avoid paying taxes and to sustain development projects uplifting the lives of the poor.
Al Mazrouei, who was former undersecretary for the private department of His Royal Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, said this could be facilitated by the transparency factor in blockchain technology.
A report by government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) defines a blockchain as “a digital ledger of transactions.”
“This ledger is shared by a network of computers, making use of cryptography to secure the authenticity of the transactions,” the PIDS said.
Locus Chain Foundation is one of the companies put up to develop a blockchain-based platform and related business. The platform is scheduled to be listed on the global exchange BiBox.