BlockchainNZ Asks Govt. to Implement National Blockchain Strategy

By Kapil Gauhar

BlockchainNZ is an organisation claiming to be centred around enabling New Zealand businesses as well as individuals to advance in all things distributed ledger technology, decentralisation and cryptocurrency.

A local news source, Scoop, reported on May 22nd, 2019, that the organisation is set to work with the nation’s authorities for implementing a national strategy based on blockchain to enable New Zealand to get up and speed with other countries.

Moving Ahead with DLT

According to the sources close to the matter, in a bid to boost the growth rate of New Zealand’s blockchain industry, BlockchainNZ is set to ask the nation’s government to formulate a national DLT strategy that would raise the blockchain ecosystem of the region.

Mark Pascall, the executive director of BlockchainNZ, will reportedly testify before the New Zealand parliament economic development, science and innovation select committee hearing in Wellington on May 30th, 2019.

He is anticipated to enlighten the authorities on blockchain and digital assets and how the revolutionary technology can boost up the nation’s economy.

Pascall stated –

“We want the government to take blockchain technology seriously and produce a strategy. We can help them with that so we strike a balance between trying to plan for an unpredictable future and taking some action that could generate huge economic benefits for the country.”

Action Required Immediately

Although New Zealand has a friendly-stance towards bitcoin and other digital assets, yet Pascal has opined, as demonstrated by New Zealand dollar token stable project, that the nation needs to up its game to be on the same level with other regions at the forefront of the digital currency and DLT movement.

Most importantly, the blockchain activist argued that DLT and cryptosphere have gone past the stage of hype with no real use cases and joining the bandwagon at this early stage will have positive implications for the citizens of New Zealand in an emerging global economy.

Pascall declared –

“Since this year, price and the market cap of the top 20 cryptos have surged by around 100%. Bitcoin, the first application of a blockchain, settled over USD 400 billion in transaction volume globally last year. That is more than Venmo, Apple Pay, or PayPal.”

Pascall has additionally made it clear that since the world has become highly centralised, with some mega-corporations like Amazon, Google, Facebook and government superpowers controlling the data, wealth and power of the nations, it has become essential for New Zealand to embrace the technology now and use it to its advantage.