Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore gave a ministerial forum with students of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) on September 4th, in which he provided a balanced view of blockchain technology.
PM: Blockchain is a “Fabulous New Idea”
It has been reported that PM Lee reportedly answered questions on several topics during the hour-long session, available now from the Prime Minister’s Office YouTube Channel.
PM Lee was of the opinion that distributed ledger technology can be used for many purposes, calling it “a fabulous new idea,” but indicated that some of its applications may be unnecessary. Similarly, he declared that auditors will never fully be replaced by blockchain solutions, regardless of their guarantees.
“If you use blockchain to verify some of the things which previously auditors had to go and verify, I have no doubt that there will be many other things which auditors need to check for,” Lee said.
Speaking to the students of Singapore University of Social Sciences, PM Lee said,
“I can tell you for sure that having blockchain is not going to stop things from going wrong, or stop people from finding clever new ways to do wrong things.” PM Lee
It has been quoted by a Chinese saying that translates roughly as “the magician is one foot taller, the evil witch is 10 feet higher,” claiming that no matter how secure or advanced blockchain may seem, there will always be people figuring out new ways to abuse and undermine its solutions.
While Lee expressed confidence that auditors will always have work, he admitted that the nature of audit work may evolve.