Blockchain Adoption in Public Administration: Insights from Romania

Since 2008, both private and public organizations around the world have increasingly implemented distributed ledger technology in various domains such as finance, tourism, supply chain and public administration. The present paper aims to highlight the positive and negative perceptions of public servants regarding implementing blockchain in public administration and designing related public policies, with a special emphasis on Romania. The conclusions of the paper were reached by using a survey built on the basis of specialized literature in the field. The survey investigated both the level of knowledge and public servants’ attitudes towards blockchain technology. Although the preliminary results indicate a limited understanding of the concepts related to blockchain, a surprising appreciation of the potential of this technology to improve administrative processes, in particular by reducing fraud and increasing transparency emerged as a secondary result. These perspectives can serve as a starting point for the development of public policies that support the integration of blockchain into public governance systems.