Canada’s Research Center Builds Ethereum Blockchain Explorer

Canada's National Research Council (NRC) reported that it had created an Ethereum blockchain explorer to provide a positive insight into the capabilities for this technology and how it may be adopted for more open and transparent operations for government programs.

The NRC said on its website that its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), in tandem with blockchain startup Bitaccess, is hosting the explorer on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). It added that IPFS enables web applications to be "unalterable and can be accessed far into the future," regardless if the original host is connected to the Internet or not.

“In June 2017, the NRC IRAP hosted a blockchain kickoff session that brought together colleagues from across government,” the website post reads. “At this meeting, NRC IRAP unveiled its plans to test the viability of blockchain technology in administering the Program's Contribution Agreements (innovation funding) with Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The experiment would provide a first real-use case of its kind for government and other public institutions.”

According to the post, the Ethereum explorer enables the users to search Ethereum blockchain from preemptive contribution data and published grants.

According to the post, the NRC IRAP’s blockchain experiment also brings together several Canadian institutions working together to bring about innovations. Aside from Bitaccess, the project also received funding from the Public Services and Procurement Canada's Build in Canada Innovation Program.

It added that NRC IRAP is involved in SMEs across that country that generate a large volume of financial transactions and recordkeeping that requires public disclosure and transparency.

In a separate press release, Bitaccess confirmed Canada’s blockchain experiment after the success of Ethereum Blockchain in January of this year. With the experiment, the NRC IRAP is using Bitaccess’ latest product, the Catena Blockchain Suite, which allows the government agency to conduct a live trial to explore the use of public blockchains in the transparent administration of government grants and contributions.

"Our goal is to enable institutions to become fully transparent, and enable constituents to participate in the verification and validation of public information," says Moe Adham, co-founder of Bitaccess. “We built the Catena Blockchain Suite as a simple, low risk, application for institutions to get introduced to blockchain technology. So far the reception has been terrific.”