Ukraine's Former Prime Minister Suggests Blockchain Solution to Country’s Corruption Problems

Published on March 2019 by Cryptovest Staff

Yulia Tymoshenko has proposed to tackle Ukraine’s corruption using blockchain technology.

Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is currently running a presidential campaign for the March 2019 elections, has proposed to counter the state’s “total corruption” using blockchain.

Tymoshenko, who was prime minister of Ukraine in 2005 and from late 2007 to early 2010, said in a Facebook post dedicated to International Anti-Corruption Day on Sunday that the technology can be an effective tool in public administration. She also suggested the use of blockchain to store state registers as a measure to avoid tampering and authority over the data. Among other measures, she also urged to protect the country’s courts from the influence of politicians, to sue officials that accept bribes and to break monopolies.

This is not the first time Tymoshenko has talked about the potential use of blockchain in the fight against corruption. Speaking at a forum in Kyiv last June, she explained:

“Blockchain is a perfect anti-corruption technology, which is proven by international practice. In order to completely eliminate corruption in public registries and to protect each citizen's personal data, we have to transfer all administration systems to blockchain.”

Ukraine is shaping up as a crypto-friendly country, with a variety of ideas about nationwide blockchain adoption, developing a state-backed digital currency and working on cryptocurrency regulation to prevent their usage in criminal activities. Last year, blockchain solutions provider Bitfury proposed a blockchain-powered election platform for Ukraine.

In August, the country’s Central Election Commission held a test voting on blockchain, using the NEM protocol. Oleksandr Stelmakh, the head of the State Register at the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine, said at the time that storing the voting outcome on blockchain will make it impossible for anyone to change the records, while also presenting the information in a more user-friendly format.