Blockchain technology has emerged as a disruptive application across industries. It is a distributed ledger that tracks a set of transactions in a decentralized, secure, and transparent way in the form of a blockchain. To investigate the effects of use on the main functions of government, Maciel Queiroz, a researcher at FGV's School of Business Administration (EAESP), together with Samuel Fosso Wamba, Serge-Lopez Wamba-Taguimdje, and Qihui Lu, published a study on the topic in Government Information Quarterly in February 2024.

Previous studies have shown that blockchain technologies are a powerful, essential and effective lever for transforming government processes and procedures and improving management and public policy. Thus, technology brings valuable opportunities to organizations: transparency, privacy, security, risk control, democratization, and reliability.

To this end, 167 cases of technology-focused projects in the public sector were selected based on a mapping by the "Observatory of Innovative Public Services" (IPSO). In this way, an exploratory analysis was carried out, i.e. an in-depth analysis of the project indicators to maximise the retrieval of data insights. In addition, an fsQCA approach was applied, a method that identifies complex causal relationships between variables and, consequently, identifying the conditions that lead to the achievement of open government operational and administrative performance.

The results show concrete evidence on how blockchain enhances key functions of government and its subsectors, influencing public service governance, administrative efficiency, and open government capacity, while driving innovation and improving operational and administrative performance.

The research highlights that the effects of blockchain are:

• Reduction of bureaucracy, discretion and corruption;

• Increased automation, transparency, auditing and accountability of information for the benefit of citizens and stakeholders;

• Increased trust of citizens and businesses in government processes. A crucial contribution of the system is its ability to promote a citizen-centered agenda, transparent governance, and decentralized approach to development.

Despite the benefits, the research recognizes blockchain's challenges, such as integration with existing systems, employee training, and regulatory issues. Technology in the public sector is in its early stages, but its transformative potential is evident, as shown by systematic analyses and tangible examples from the study. In terms of administrative efficiency, the system reduces costs, improves the management of public resources, promotes the quality of processes, communication and collaboration, and reduces or eliminates risks of corruption, promoting fairness and equality.

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