Can govt's plan to use blockchain choke Nirav Modi-style bank frauds?

The tech is useful in digitising land records, can be applied to infra, farm sector, education, finance; but there are many hurdles in implementing it

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech that government does not consider crypto assets as legal. But in the same breath, he also spoke about the possibility of using blockchain proactively to usher in the digital economy.

While Jaitley hadn't dwelt on the ways the technology can be used and the areas in which the government plans to introduce it, experts say blockchain, originally formed for Bitcoin, can be used to maintain land records, and has applications in several other areas. These include agriculture, financial exchanges, infrastructure and education, among others. Some quarters also believe that its usefulness