Re: Will governments use Blockchain way beyond financial apps?
There are ways to secure data from prying eyes (privacy). Ever heard about Zero Knowledge Proofs? They are a type of cryptographic technique that proves a transaction took place without the need to reveal the information pertaining to the sender and/or receiver. Privacy coins like Zcash and Zcoin already use such technique. And if governments are worried about security, they can simply launch a Layer-two network built on top of the main Bitcoin blockchain. It would gain all of Bitcoin's security benefits without the need to use BTC. The possibilities are endless.
It's just that governments are skeptical of crypto/Blockchain tech. The industry is not ready for primetime yet. Give it some time, and Blockchain will become an integral part of our daily life. Just you wait and see. See you in 10 years.
I have heard what ZKPs are and I know they can hide the user while he makes the transactions, and this feature is mostly used in obfuscating services like you said. But don't you think there is a difference between remaining anonymous while making tx and inscribing user's data (like marriage licenses, driving licenses, IDS, etc.) on blockchain making it publicly available is another thing. I mean its the data we are uploading on blockchain? that's vulnerable not the user uploading it.It's just that governments are skeptical of crypto/Blockchain tech. The industry is not ready for primetime yet. Give it some time, and Blockchain will become an integral part of our daily life. Just you wait and see. See you in 10 years.
Although besides ZKPs we can use any encryption technique to store user's data publically on blockchain and they won't decrypt it until they have the key so yeah with encryption we can store user's data on blockchain and can decrypt it as well. I know the scenes won't be the same after 10 years, so let's see what our future has to offer.