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By John Clark Naldoza (Republished with permission from the Author)
As someone who’s been following blockchain transparency solutions adopted by government entities, I’m concerned that we’re solving the wrong problem entirely.
The Core Issue: Garbage In, Garbage Out
The application of blockchain in food supply chains does not resolve conventional IoT data quality issues. Data on a blockchain may simply be immutable garbage. This applies directly to government systems.
If someone inputs garbage data onto a blockchain, that garbage is recorded forever and can inadvertently become a flawed source of truth. We’re creating permanent records of potentially false information.
The “Oracle Problem”
What is the “Oracle Problem”?—getting reliable external data into blockchain systems. Blockchain infrastructures cannot make any veracity guarantees for data that was not natively generated on-chain and not publicly available. If a person commits fraudulent data into the blockchain, there’s no way to ascertain the veracity of this data.
Someone still has to input project budgets, completion percentages, and compliance reports. That person becomes the critical point of failure blockchain was supposed to eliminate.
Missing the Real Problem
A common misconception is that the use of a blockchain alone can ensure data integrity. However, even though blockchains can reliably prevent the undetected modification of data once it is confirmed on-chain, blockchains will enforce this only on the data it is given.
The issue isn’t that records can be changed later—it’s that they’re wrong from the start. Blockchain technology can’t solve for the human factor.
Better Solutions
True transparency requires fixing data quality at the source through robust verification processes, traditional auditing, and proper oversight—not expensive technological band-aids that make bad data permanent.
We’re essentially putting lipstick on a pig while the fundamental problems remain unaddressed.
About the Author:
John Clark Naldoza (LinkedIn) is a technology leader with 27 years of experience in enterprise architecture, digital transformation, and blockchain. He has held leadership roles at Accenture and as a Chief Technology Officer, driving cloud migrations, blockchain implementations, and large-scale digital strategies. A former president of the Cebu GNU/Linux Users Group (1999–2014), he is passionate about innovation, mentorship, and aligning technology with business goals.
This Op Ed is published on BitPinas: [Op Ed] John Clark Naldoza: Why Blockchain “Transparency” Solutions Miss the Mark for Government Accountability
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