Vietnamese trade with other economies can be eased through financial applications related to blockchain. However, regulations need to be quickly adapted to include the use of state-of-the-art technology.
Vietnam is a central country in the regional trade space, and it could take the lead in working with its trading partners on cross-border technology, Dr Chris Berg, senior Research Fellow at RMIT Blockchain Innovation hub, told the Saigon Times on the sidelines of a workshop titled “Blockchain: the future of financial management” today, August 1.
Blockchain is a new way of organising information. Currently, the financial system is heavily dependent on centralised databases.
By adopting blockchain technology, the radical nature of financial systems has been changed from a centralised to a decentralised way of organising and managing information, leading to different ways of doing business.
In countries like Australia, there has been significant investment in database systems such as the shared public access system. However, in middle-income nations like Vietnam, there has been less investment in the sector.
Blockchain, which is still in the early stages of development, is often used to manage transactions for financial services. The challenge lies in observing the efforts of other nations to find a system that would work in Vietnam.
“This would require experiments, proof of concepts and so on,” noted Dr Berg, who has authored five books including The Libertarian Alternative.
Moreover, the technology and applications related to blockchain are so new that regulations have not yet been issued for them. This problem is not unique to Vietnam.
To promote efficiency and innovation, Vietnam and other countries should expedite changes to the regulatory system.
“Regulations need to be drawn up in anticipation of new challenges to get in front of them,” said Dr Berg, a regular columnist for Sunday Age and ABC’s The Drum. At present, the sector is either underregulated or overregulated, he added.
Besides changing the regulatory framework, the government will have the chance to experiment with new technologies, as a major player in the information management space, running large databases.
