Budget 2018: DTA to begin GovPass trial in Oct

The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has revealed details of how it plans to spend the additional funds allocated to it in the recent Budget.

The 2018 Budget allocated $92.4 million to the agency for the next phase of the GovPass project to build a single digital identity system for government services.

This will be used in part to fund a pilot of the GovPass digital identity among up to eight high-volume government services, allowing more than 500,000 people to test the system.

Applying for a tax file number and registering a business will be the first services to be trialled with the digital identity system from October.

The DTA will have oversight of the system and develop the Trusted Digital Identity Framework for accreditation of identity providers.

Meanwhile, the ATO will be the government’s identity provider and the Department of Human Services will operate the exchange connecting accredited identity providers with the government services being accessed.

The 2018 Budget also included a $700,000 investment to allow the DTA to investigate the merits of using blockchain to enhance government services.

The agency plans to conduct this work in two stages, with the first stage being focused on conducting research aimed at understanding the maturity of blockchain technology, the problems blockchain might be able to solve and the readiness for government to adopt it.

The second stage will involve developing a possible solution for one of the problems identified to help gain an understanding of how blockchain can support government services.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Kurhan

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