CONCEPTUAL MODELING OF DLT AND BLOCKCHAIN FOR TRANSFORMING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

If for the internet was difficult to disrupt our lives and become indispensable resource, so Information and communication technologies (ICTs) took only a decade to do that. Blockchain even needed less than decade to disrupt and transform completely the functionality and operations of societal processes. And even still this word is strongly related with digital currencies, and then the technology lays behind it can be applied in every single field of human’s life.

Distributed Ledger Technology refers to a novel and fast-evolving approach to recording and sharing data across multiple data stores (or ledgers). This technology allows for transactions and data to be recorded, shared, and synchronized across a distributed network of different network participants.

A ‘blockchain’ is a particular type of data structure used in some distributed ledgers which stores and transmits data in packages called “blocks” that are connected to each other in a digital ‘chain’. Blockchains employ cryptographic and algorithmic methods to record and synchronize data across a network in an immutable manner. Three features of DLT that are generally considered key to the technology are outlined below: the distributed nature of the ledger, the consensus mechanism, and cryptographic mechanisms.

E-Governance aims to solve one of the basic problems of each Public Administration – administration and bureaucracy in management of state registers. Looking back in time, their historical path represents a centralized manner of management. A single administrative structure is responsible for importing, processing and storage the data in the register. Information systems make the processes automated in this centralized approach. But still its efficiency is questioned. More and more industry sectors encompassing Industry 4.0 consider these technologies seriously as an opportunity for transformation, optimization and efficient work. The sector of public administration turns its look at that direction as well. Even not as agile and dynamic as the business, public administration has large potential for adoption and implementation of Distributed ledger technologies in various headings. This paper aims to analyze the centralized approach of public registers’ governance – data bases of state administration as key information resource and their conversion toward decentralized management. The public administration registers are examined bidirectional – from technological point of view as data bases, and organizational point of view as information recourse. The empirical part of the study will be motivated with a part of the Bulgarian administration’s registers and their data management process and information contained. The analysis of the advantages and any potential disadvantages through the process of transformation toward distributed decentralized data base model will be performed. The results of this study will outline the conceptual model of conversion approach. This paper as a part of learning and training process in e-governance courses "E-governance fundamentals", "Contemporary research in e-governance" and "IS for documents and data in public administration".