This is a very nice implementation of blockchain technology - Ethereum, to be specific - to provide public access to data about National Research Council (NRC) Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) grants to companies in different research areas. Coverage in Coindesk. You can see the implementation here. Now as the NRC press release notes, "These are early days, but NRC IRAP's experiments with blockchain are expected to provide constructive insight into the potential for this technology and how it may be used for more open and transparent operations for public programs." You might ask: how is this different from just providing access to a database? On the surface, it isn't different, but because it's on the blockchain, the government can't come along later and revise it or remove it. It's a matter of public record, and there it stays.
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