A Canadian Government Body Has Built an Ethereum Blockchain Explorer

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced Monday that it has built an ethereum blockchain explorer.

The organization wrote in a news release that its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) is now hosting the explorer on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) through services provided by Bitaccess, a blockchain startup.

Using IPFS, it said, ensures web applications are both "unalterable and can be accessed far into the future," regardless of whether the original host is online or not.

The explorer allows users to search the ethereum blockchain for proactively published grants and contribution data, according to Bitaccess.

The NRC continued:

"These are early days, but NRC IRAP's experiments with blockchain are expected to provide constructive insight into the potential for this technology and how it may be used for more open and transparent operations for public programs."

According to the post, NRC IRAP launched the Canadian government's first live trial of public blockchain technology on ethereum back in January, in an effort to build a more transparent administration of government contracts.

Since the launch, the program is reported to have been exploring additional applications in blockchain technology.

As CoinDesk reported previously, IPFS aims to build a more permanent web by storing multiple copies of data. It initially caught international attention as may were worrying at the time that the new administration in the U.S. would make data from the government agencies disappear.

Moe Adham, co-founder of Bitaccess, said in a news release that the company is helping to "enable constituents to participate in the verification and validation of public information."

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