Blockchain and Smart Contracts present important opportunities that are very promising. Blockchain and smart contracts enable efficient, secure and trusted transactions and have the potential to disrupt many industries. I will briefly list below some use cases for blockchain and smart contracts, as these demonstrate the enormous potential of smart contracts.

• Smart contracts present a useful technology in the area of e-government. Blockchain and smart contracts will facilitate our Government to achieve its strategic aim of digitalizing and enhancing the efficiency regarding the provision of public services.

• Further smart contracts are potentially helpful in voting, because they ensure that the votes casted are not tampered with. Electoral fraud may, thus, be prevented and transparency achieved.

• Our Land Registry could benefit from smart contracts. Title details will be stored on blockchain, where property titles could be transferred through smart contracts.

• Data relating to the identity details of citizens may also be stored and create the so-called “Self-Sovereign Digital Identity”. All KYC-related material of citizens may be stored in a single place for use by various governmental departments.

• Electronic payments and tax collection could be made via smart contracts. This would help ensure the execution of payments, especially by the government in relation to taxes.

• Raising funds for local projects could also be made via smart contracts, through the issuing of microbonds. The efficiency of smart contracts reduces the issuing costs of microbonds and enables their offering to smaller investors.

• The healthcare industry could benefit from smart contracts. Public hospitals or private clinics could securely store sensitive data and keep the medical records of clients updated with low costs.

• The supply chain management has often presented problems of coordination between the various counterparties involved. This is, at least partly, resolved through smart contracts that function as tracking and authenticity devices.

• Further, smart contracts can eliminate the need for escrow services. Money could be held on the blockchain and once certain conditions were met, smart contracts would release them appropriately.

• The use of smart contracts in the financial industry should also be stressed. Raising finance and trading stock, or other financial instruments are possible through smart contracts. Blockchain also opens the door for crowd-funding.

• IP rights protection can be enhanced through smart contracts, whereby the sale of creative work could be facilitated and proof of ownership could be securely identified, especially in relation to copyright, since blockchain data are time-stamped.

• The insurance industry has potential interest in using smart contracts. Insurance payments could be facilitated. AXA, a large financial company, uses smart contracts in flight delay insurance payments.