CompTIA’s SLED Council, representing IT companies that do business with state and local 
governments, gathered in Boston, Massachusetts last week to hear from a number of initiatives taking place within the state. A highlight of the SLED Summit was a panel discussing CompTIA’s Blockchain Guide: Harnessing the Blockchain Revolution: CompTIA’s Practical Guide for the Public Sector. The discussion, moderated by David Logsdon, CompTIA’s Senior Director for Advocacy, featured authors of the guide, including Breck DeWitt, SLG CTO Office & Solutions Development Director, Dell EMC; Stephen Newell, Blockchain leader, US Public Market, IBM; and Joel Waterfield, Managing Director, Grant Thornton.
The group discussed the prospects for Blockchain solutions in state and local government. To date, there are only pilot or limited implementations that the group was aware of so the discussion focused on blockchain being at a ‘tipping point’ where there are many siloed efforts and uses within the private sector that are just starting to creep into the public sector. Barriers to getting the technology over that tipping point include limited scalability in its current applications and the need for volume of transactions processed to be low. Another challenge focused on the security and infrastructures surrounding the blockchain applications and the need for those surrounding systems to be secure and limit exposure to assets. Another barrier is one that is encountered often in government where employees and political institutions are resistant to change. Building a strong business case and surrounding the change with a strong change management structure is crucial to success.
Despite the limited applications in government, blockchain presents the public sector with unlimited possibilities for secure processing and recordkeeping of many transactions that are routine and widely used in government. Applications that could easily translate to government include supply chain integrity and management, autonomous vehicles, identity management and physical records management.
Working to build the business case for use of blockchain solutions in government, as well as creating a culture of change and acceptance of blockchain applications will be a major focus at both the federal and state levels over the next two years and we expect to see these limited pilots and test applications to be expanded in certain governments in the coming years.
If you would like to attend future SLED meetings, please contact Pete Kaminskas about membership!
Jennifer Saha is the National Director, Public Sector Councils at CompTIA
