Stefan Matthews: nChain will digitize public services in the Philippines with the BSV blockchain

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As the Philippines embarks on a path towards digital transformation, government agencies and various organizations are looking at blockchain technology as a tool to help the country achieve its goal.

Shortly after Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was inaugurated as the 17th President of the Philippines in 2022, his administration announced its desire to streamline public services with the use of new technology.

In response to the government’s call, the province of Bataan hosted its first blockchain conference in October. The event was attended by local and international blockchain leaders, as well as government officials from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) – the agency tasked by the president to implement digitization in the country.

Aiming to present blockchain services to governments and businesses, nChain, a global technology company offering blockchain solutions and products, participated in the event. As Stefan Mathews, nChain co-founder and executive chairman tells Claire Celdran in this episode of CoinGeek Conversations, what followed the event was a series of talks between nChain and the local government of Bataan that resulted in an agreement between the two parties to establish a digital platform for the province to streamline current systems and procedures for public services.

“During the event and several meetings afterward, I had some pretty deep conversations with Governor Garcia and Congressman Garcia, and their vision for this technology and its application in government is second to none. I mean, they’re very, very progressive thinkers,” Matthews said .

Bataan is poised to become the country’s blockchain hub due to its special economic zone status. Nonetheless, Matthews notes that Bataan’s freeport status is irrelevant to nChain’s goals.

“The reason we’re there is the technology and the ability to do things with the technology that benefits the province but also benefits the country,” Matthews said.

Coincidentally, Matthews has been a resident of Bataan for nine years. He believes Bataan is a natural fit for blockchain activity.

Aiming to form partnerships and strengthen relationships, nChain recently embarked on a series of meetings with government officials, financial institutions and a top university in the country. As a result of these initiatives, nChain has formed a partnership with Ateneo de Manila University to deliver blockchain education to its students.

“We will work with faculty staff to train them on the delivery of blockchain courses, blockchain materials…we will sponsor or grant or fund projects for three graduate students at the university to expand their research in blockchain here in the Philippines, which includes also to make the entire intellectual property portfolio of nChain available to students… and finally, there is the internship issue, we want to offer internships both in our companies and in relation to what we do in Bataan for university students to complete their education, Matthews said.

On top of the work nChain is doing with Ateneo de Manila University, Matthews also announced the company’s plan to launch a Block Dojo incubator in Bataan. Matthews says the initiative goes hand-in-hand with their goal of “fostering Philippine innovation in building solutions on the blockchain that will be deployed domestically, but also potentially, internationally, it also allows us to help potentially uncover a Philippine unicorn.”

Perhaps one of the most memorable parts of nChain’s recent activities was Stefan’s meeting with Philippine President “Bongbong” Marcos. As Matthews says, the casual conversation that took place over lunch at the Presidential Palace covered a variety of topics related to the delivery of blockchain services in Bataan and whether it can be replicated province-to-province or at the national level. More importantly, Matthews mentions the main takeaway from his conversation with the president, saying, “He’s very alert to what’s going on in Bataan and wants to be kept up to date, and so I think we’re committed to doing a good job.”

It is also good to note that Matthew’s meeting with Bataan Governor Jose Enrique Garcia and his team has yielded positive results. Matthews says the conversations involved “the serious part of defining what the first rollout of a blockchain application will be in the province,” and he was keen to point out that the governor’s timeline is aggressive. Nevertheless, Matthews and the Bataan team tasked with working with nChain have agreed to comply with the governor’s request.

“We’re hoping that we can have some prototypes in front of these people in the first quarter of next year. Now, when [Governor Garcia] heard that, he was very happy … that’s the kind of time frame he wants to see,” Matthews said.

nChain also met DICT Secretary Jonathan Ivan and his team. According to Matthews, the topics of discussion revolved around the blockchain and the applications being built for Bataan, and they also talked about the sovereignty of government data and whether data stored on the blockchain is private or accessible to others.

Overall, nChain’s activities in the Philippines create more opportunities for both the company and the country, considering the benefits that Bitcoin SV [BSV] blockchain technology can do for Filipinos. As Matthews says, the advantage of using BSV technology is that it offers characteristics that other blockchains do not, and they are “scale, cost, security, legal structure.”

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