Having read the intro the report, I don't think there's anything they're suggesting that can't simply be implemented with a spreadsheet in git repo. But that is

Having read the intro the report, I don't think there's anything they're suggesting that can't simply be implemented with a spreadsheet in git repo. But that isn't as sexy. Government has already shown reluctant to share data, c.f. the Open Data movement. National and local government still use Excel spreadsheets, and you still come across the occasional scanned-in PDF. Why do people think they're suddenly going to adopt some flashy distributed ledger tech? Why do people think that's the important problem to solve? It's a solution in search of a problem. It doesn't even solve the actual problems of trust and getting good quality data released. Blockchains often seem to be an expression of technologists' distrust of government, as though it'd all be better if other people could be replaced with code, when in fact it would undermine democracy [1]. The idea of GDS being mandated to explore the use of a specific technology is ridiculous. They should be using the technology that they choose to solve problems that people actually have. Ultimately, this sort of hyperbolic all-in report does serve to pull the conversation in a particular direction (openness, machine-readable data), which is good, but it simultaneously undermines it by being likely to fail. [1] http://tom.loosemore.com/2015/11/01/blockchain-vs-democracy-aka-software-is-politics-now/ http://tom.loosemore.com/2015/11/01/blockchain-vs-democracy-...