DBS Bank pilots blockchain-based government grants

Singapore’s DBS Bank launched a solution that uses blockchain technology to streamline the disbursement of government grants. 

DBS Bank announced that in the pilot, it collaborated with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore and the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA), which promotes financial technology in the country. 

DBS Bank uses smart contracts to disburse government grants

During the pilot, the SFA disbursed government grants to 27 members. DBS said that its pilot showed how blockchain-based programmable grants can improve efficiency, enhance governance and allow businesses to have faster access to government grants. 

With DBS’ permissioned blockchain, ESG and its intermediaries, like the SFA, can determine the conditions of the programs and govern grant disbursements. According to DBS, this includes disbursements to approved recipients upon fulfilling certain business conditions. 

Once the conditions are fulfilled, smart contracts will verify that they are met. After this process, the grants will be disbursed automatically to the beneficiaries. 

According to DBS, the solution enhances governance control and reduces the need for intermediaries to manually process cash handling. This allows businesses to receive their cash payouts from the government much faster. 

Furthermore, the bank’s permissioned blockchain gives full visibility of the process, giving greater transparency to the organizations involved. 

Permissioned blockchains are networks with an access control layer that allows participants only a pre-approved level of authority. Even though they use distributed ledger technology, these blockchains are only partially decentralized. 

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Results of MAS-led Project Orchid

DBS Bank also noted that the programmable grants pilot applies what the firm has learned from participating in Project Orchid, a digital currency initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The initiative tests the benefits of tokenization with local stakeholders. 

DBS Bank also previously collaborated with digital payment provider Ant International on a blockchain-based treasury and liquidity management solution. On Aug. 13, DBS launched its treasury tokens, which Ant will use for liquidity and treasury management. The tokens are within the bank’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) permissioned blockchain. 

The solution was created using systems developed during the company’s participation in another MAS-led effort on digital currencies, Project Guardian. 

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