Topic: Digital payment revolution can fight corruption. (Read 188 times)

Governments will be happy to use blockchain technology to fight tax evasion, but not corruption
The two things are different, tax evasion is done by the people, so the government wants to stop it, to collect more taxes. When it's about the corruption, sometimes the goverment or the politicians are involved, so they won't use blockchain to stop corruption at all....
Or, they will need a kind of blockchain that they can rule, so a centralized one, which is purely like a digitalized fiat system (which is like the model of Sweden).
Tax evasion and corruption are totally different things

"....as economies and governments look for new ways to modernize and tackle corruption, leaders must look beyond cash..." This line just really caught my attention. I agree with this. Leaders of our country need to look further. Governments have been in this fight against corruption for such a long time now. And cryptocurrency or the digital payment revolution (as stated in this article) could be the solution to minimize and, hopefully, eliminate the corruption.

Bitcoin transactions are transparent because of the blockchain technology. This could be applied to the government's system because transparency is what a country needs in order to see where every money is going. Corruption may always be there because of the influence of external factors such as greed and others but looking at the bright side, the digital revolution may do something in eliminating such issues. It may not completely extinguish the problem but with the small but significant efforts from the modern digital revo, we could be taking a step towards a better government and world in general.

They could.  They never will, but they could.  

Call me a cynic/conspiracy theorist/skeptic/whatever, but I'm simply incapable of believing that governments genuinely want to curb the worst of their excesses.  I suppose I can't speak for all countries, some may be less corrupt. But in the UK, most politicians aren't in the job because they believe they're making the world a better place, they're in it for the generous wage packets, which they always pass a vote to increase whenever the opportunity arises, the taxpayer-subsidised bar, so they can get cheap booze while ordinary people go hungry, along with the ability to abuse their expenses and claim for stuff the average person would be jailed for if they tried pulling a stunt like that.

Kleptocracy.  Not Democracy.

Ending corruption is literally the last thought on their mind.  Hopefully, one day, we can do away with the archaic notion of so-called elected representatives and replace all of them with a blockchain.  Then consensus can be a societal governance model, not just a network governance model.

Using the blockchain technology the government could actually combat and reduced corruption. If the government adopts or integrates blockchain technology in their system especially in their bidding purchases all transaction payments will be transparent since this technology will allow people to monitor the movement of the treasury by looking at the blockchain. With more people looking at how their taxes are spent corrupt officials will think twice before doing any anomaly.

no regulator here in crypto so corruption is none but still some country like in my country need permit to run a business here so i think in some ways we can use bitcoin to corrupt but i don't experience it because all my move here are no regulator at all like everytime i do transaction here so better to find a no regulator so your money don't have tax at all

Fair enough points made but truth is corruption will always exist, and a digital payment is not going to change that. 

yeah it was really good and also transparent to see the transaction
but goverment still thingking how to clarify the traffic exchange so they can see who transfer to where ?
the goverment i think are really thingking to solve that matter and implemnt it in those too fight corruption

this is very true as there will now be a digitized copy of everything that is done so even tax collection could be streamlined and made easy. the fact is everything that happens on the blockchain is digitally recorded and that record will exist forever, it will be easier now to reconstruct transaction history around any particular occurrence .it will also make fiscal planning easier as government bodies will now be able to correctly see market trends and craft better economic plans to achieve their economic goals.

Governments seem to have a curious definition of corruption.  Apparently it's only a crime when the government itself isn't complicit.  If it benefits them, it's suddenly perfectly legal.  

Their vision of digital payment systems won't combat the worst kinds of corruption.  They'll only make it easier for themselves to manipulate and exploit the system for their own gain.  Don't buy into the false premise that the average person would be better off in a cashless society.  There are no benefits to the general public.  Only increased surveillance and monitoring.  The most Orwellian vision of society to date.  Every purchase tracked and recorded.  The "war on cash" only benefits the ones who control that digital payment system.

Our vision of a digital payment system is what will end corruption.  The thing we're building right here, which has nothing to do with eradicating cash, but reinventing it.  That's the vision they don't like, because it doesn't benefit them.  They can't abuse it so easily.  No one is in control.

Ours is clearly the better vision.

i am agree with this post .thanks for sharing this kind of post
digital money is future

This article is primarily referring to digital fiat money rather than cryptocurrencies.  In the case of fiat money, cash is very important.  A movement to entirely digital payments takes away citizens' privacy while giving governments a huge amount of power over people's money.   Cash is anonymous and fungible, and people can use it anywhere - those are very important properties for money to have.

There have also been numerous gigantic money laundering schemes through banks, sometimes with even the banks themselves being complicit in these schemes.

I suppose if some developed economy start to transition to a cashless economy, Bitcoin would be a sort of digital rebellion, and when people need physical items to use they would use relatively valuable assets instead.

Some governments only pay lip service to fighting corruption. You might say most of them. Hiding income in Bitcoin to avoid taxes is one thing, but excessive regulation is another way for govt to justify its existence.

Well digital is always faster making it less likely that it'll be intercepted and pilfered before it reach the recipient. Of course the current system of bank accounts does have some issues and it's possible that employees can connive to tamper the records. Which is why having this system on a blockchain would be better.

Governments can fight corruption by joining the digital payment revolution

Tackling corruption is high on government agendas. Such a pervasive problem demands new solutions, especially in light of the latest Corruption Perceptions Index, which shows that the majority of countries have made little or no progress in the fight against corruption since 2012. The ranking, which uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt, found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43.

A significant impediment to progress is the problem of cash. Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars of government payments and transfers are made in physical cash. These include government salaries, health payments, pensions and financial support for families in need. Such payments are often difficult to trace, insecure and inefficient. The anonymity of cash makes it vulnerable to skimming off the top, and to “ghost” recipients who don’t exist. This is not a minor issue. It causes more than $110 billion in losses every year in emerging economies.

Thankfully, increasing connectivity and technological innovation allow governments to deliver payments through secure, transparent and convenient digital channels. The money either reaches the intended recipient in full, or goes back to state coffers. The following governments are all leveraging digital financial technologies, illustrating the power of this shift.

India: The government saved almost $9 billion in less than four years, in social protection payments through electronic Direct Benefits Transfers.

Tanzania: The digitization of entrance fee payments to the country’s National Parks reduced leakages by 40%, resulting in more income for the government.

Rwanda: The digitization of bus fares led to a 140% increase in revenue due to reduction in leakages.

Argentina: The government decreased payment leakages following its shift to electronic payment cards. Those admitting to paying bribes to local officials fell from 3.6% to 0.3%.

France: As part of efforts to curb tax fraud, the country recently adopted an order to authorize the use of tax revenue data, alongside other information, to perform advanced analytics on a trial basis.

Governments aren’t the only ones benefiting from digitized payments. When the shift to digital is managed responsibly and responsively, it can make citizens’ lives better. Access to a bank account or other digital finance portal can unlock unprecedented economic opportunities, particularly for women who are twice as likely to be excluded from the formal financial system. Having an account can make saving more convenient and secure. It can also lower the costs of accessing services that are critical to financial security and growth, such as insurance and credit products.

The digitization of payments is a necessary stepping stone in hauling anti-corruption systems into the 21st century. By leveraging payment data and advanced analytics, governments could save up to $1 trillion worldwide. Smart use of payment data is the new frontier of auditing. It helps identify suspicious patterns, fraud and non-compliance in revenue collection and payment disbursement, which can allow governments to cut leakages.

Digital payments are not a panacea. But as economies and governments look for new ways to modernize and tackle corruption, leaders must look beyond cash. The citizens they serve are increasingly adopting digital financial tools in their everyday lives. Governments cannot afford to continue to pay the cost of cash. By shifting their payments from cash to digital, they can save trillions of dollars, resulting in better government for all.

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