The Philippines is promising to become the blockchain hub in Southeast Asia, and one of the movers helping the country is nChain, an international firm focused on providing global blockchain solutions to the world.
During the nChain Blockchain Meetup at the Manila House Private Club in Bonifacio Global City, CoinGeek Backstage‘s Claire Celdran was joined by nChain’s Senior Investment Associate Nicolas Asscher-Telese in an interview tackling the firm’s projects in the Philippines, how they are working with national and local government agencies, and their plans for the country particularly in its blockchain endeavor.
“I’ve been here in Manila, helping the government end in integrating Web3 solutions in the government,” Asscher-Telese stated.
Asscher-Telese shared that nChain has been busy in the past months because they’ve been in talks with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) as well as the central bank to explain how nChain can help integrate solutions and create more efficient processes across the government and financial systems in the country—enabling these agencies to become more innovative, efficient and productive.
The nChain’s investment associate stated that everything that they’ve been doing with the Philippines is for long term.
“It’s definitely a long-term project,” Telese pointed out. Although the discussions have been at the introductory level, Asscher-Telese shared that the government agencies are happy with the technology and even stated that they are confident that nChain will deliver on its promises.
Earlier this year, the global blockchain solution firm entered an Memorandum of Understanding with the Provincial Government of Bataan to establish a digital platform for the province as part of the digitalization efforts led by the Presidency of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Asscher-Telese hopes for the project to be finalized in 2024.
nChain @nChainGlobal hosting the Provincial Government of Bataan for exciting discussions about how to implement Blockchain solutions for Bataan with the purpose of improving the efficiency and transparency of government operations, as well as providing innovative, secure and… pic.twitter.com/e67Sxq2WPl
— Christen Ager-Hanssen (@agerhanssen) May 15, 2023
nChain is also working with the DICT to optimize government services, helping the department digitize its processes for creating business and signature systems.
“The problem in the Philippines is that its government is spread out across 7,000 islands with 1,700 local government units, and they have very inefficient communication systems. And so our hope is enable people to interact and be integrated in the financial system in the government like never before,” Asscher-Telese explained.
Asscher-Telese shared that they hope to integrate more people into financial systems—such as banks—using blockchain. It’s no secret that creating a bank account and transacting is expensive in the Philippines, with fees ranging as high as $1 or more—with blockchain Asscher-Telese notes that transaction fees will be cut down to a fraction of a cent.
“45% of the population in the Philippines is unbanked. We can really help integrate that entire part of the population and again enable them to be productive and be innovative citizens, which has never been done before,” he said.
“This would be amazing for the Philippines because they’d be the first sovereign nation to utilize this technology and see the benefits that they bring. I think it would build a great reputation for the Philippines to be able to bring out this technology to the world,” Asscher-Telese added.
Watch nChain Manila Blockchain Meetup: Preparing the Philippines for blockchain revolution
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