Monthly Archives: June 2017

Is Blockchain the Answer to Corporate Registries in Canada?

Digital ID & Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC), IBM Canada, and the Province of British Columbia identify significant potential for blockchain for corporate registries

Watch the Video | Read the Paper | Get the Code

Toronto June 6, 2017 – Recognizing the challenges that governments and businesses across the country face in managing multi-jurisdiction corporate registrations, IBM Canada and the Province of British Columbia, under the neutral governance of the DIACC, today released a Proof of Concept (POC) companion paper outlining a potential framework to enable more secure, effective, and efficient corporate registrations – both within a single province and across multiple jurisdictions.

“By collaborating with IBM Canada, the Province of British Columbia and the DIACC we developed a demonstration of blockchain technology to enable a shared cross-province log of corporate registry actions that could be securely accessed by registries staff to gain visibility to the data for a single incorporated business across provincial silos,” said Joni Brennan, President of the DIACC. “This POC is unique in that it represents an opportunity to experiment and innovate in a neutral forum, and to connect the strategic contexts of business identities with that of personal identities considering the functions performed when moving from physical to digital processes.”

“Security, efficiency and client service are important considerations when creating and maintaining corporate registry information for corporations that extend beyond a single province,” said John Ouilette, IBM Canada Project Manager. “With blockchain, there is an enormous amount of potential to achieve efficiencies and create new opportunities and business models that never existed before.”

The Corporate Registry POC leverages the Hyperledger Fabric, a blockchain framework and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Hyperledger Fabric offers a decentralized and cryptographically secure model to record and share transactional information. The technology also prevents modification of information, or “blocks”, recorded in the system. Further developments of the POC will maintain an open-standards based approach.

Hyperledger Fabric offers a decentralized and cryptographically secure model to record and share transactional information. The technology also prevents modification of information, or “blocks”, recorded in the system. Further developments of the POC will maintain an open-standards based approach.

Detailed installation instructions for both a local installation and a cloud installation can be found at: https://github.com/DIACC/POC-corporate-registries

Looking to learn more? View the POC video here.

About DIACC
Created as a result of the federal government’s Task Force for the Payments System Review, the DIACC is a non-profit coalition of public and private sector leaders committed to developing a Canadian digital identification and authentication framework to enable Canada’s full and secure participation in the global digital economy. DIACC members include representatives from both the federal and provincial levels of government as well as private sector leaders.

The DIACC is a coalition of public and private sector organizations committed to developing a robust, secure, scalable, and privacy enhancing digital identification and authentication ecosystem that will decrease costs for governments, consumers, and business while improving service delivery and driving GDP growth. A made-in- Canada digital identification ecosystem will reflect Canadian values and priorities, and empower Canadians to conduct a wide range of secure online transactions and interactions both domestically and internationally.

DIACC members work together by sharing resources and perspectives to address the needs of the digital transformation through the development of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF). The PCTF is a set of Canadian principled standards that support open government principles and enable Canada’s full and secure participation in the global digital economy. DIACC members collaboratively develop market educating innovation white papers, proof of concepts, and applied research to secure Canada’s full and beneficial participation in the digital economy.

To learn more about the DIACC visit www.DIACC.ca

About the Province of British Columbia
The Province of British Columbia provides services such as education, healthcare, social services and economic development to its 4.6 million residents. Seeking to further economic development, the Government of British Columbia wants to develop innovative public services faster to meet evolving demand and improve its user experience.

To meet the challenge, the province established the BC Developers’ Exchange (BCDevExchange) to take advantage of the innovation of private sector technology companies and entrepreneurs. The BC Developers’ Exchange supports collaboration between government and citizens using open source tools, such as online code repository GitHub and technology such as Hyperledger Fabric (Hyperledger Project).

The province works within the DIACC community to support the establishment of Canadian personal and organizational identity standards and increase its understanding of the technologies which may support the broad adoption of trusted, secure digital services.

Media Enquiries
Krista Pawley
kpawley@DIACC.ca
416-270-9987