A blockchain works as a decentralized ledger that is verified and shared by a network of computers, and can be used to record data as well as to secure and validate an exchange of assets, such as currencies or commodities.
Banks and other financial institutions are increasingly investing in blockchain technology, reckoning it could cut their costs and make their operations faster and more transparent.
Britain has had a patchy record with government IT systems. Previous IT problems have hit the passport agency, the tax credit system and most notably the National Health Service which was forced in 2011 to announce the abandonment of a multi-billion pound scheme to computerize every patient record.
Earlier in 2016, the governments chief scientific adviser urged the government to explore how it could use blockchain. The Bank of England has called it a key technological innovation, and has a team working on ways that it could be used, such as for issuing central bank money.
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