Representatives of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords have unveiled legislation for the purpose of removal of paper trade documents to increase the likelihood of using blockchain technology for tracing records, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, through an October announcement, MP Michelle Donelan and UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport stated that the Electronic Trade Documents Bill had been introduced to the Parliament. Insights of the legislation proposed the need for removal of unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy through legalisation of digital documentation for trade.
“Electronic trade documents also increase security and compliance by making it easier to trace records — for instance, through the use of blockchain and distributed ledger technology. International trade still relies to a large extent on a special category of trade document which is dependent on being physically possessed by a person, and transferred over to another person,” the government mentioned, citing the World Economic Forum.
On the basis of information by Cointelegraph, Donelan and the digital department highlighted that the bill would ensure reduction of carbon emissions related to documentation by around 10% and also reduce processing time, as UK reportedly processes roughly 28.5 million paper trade documents on a daily basis. If the bill gets passed, the legislation would allow businesses to provide electronic versions of documents such as promissory notes, warehouse receipts, cargo insurance certificates, deliver orders from ships, among others.
Moreover, Cointelegraph noted the uncertainty in UK government’s plans for the economy post a scrapped tax plan which resulted in the fall of British pound. Previously, prime minister Liz Truss made the point of cryptocurrencies’ acceptance without any constraints to their potential.
Going by Cointelegraph’s official website, founded in 2013, it is a digital media resource covering news on blockchain technology, crypto assets, and emerging financial technology (fintech) trends. Their team aims to deliver news from both the decentralised and centralised worlds.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)
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