USAID Primer on Blockchain

This primer aims to equip international development agencies and partners to assess whether and how DLT might apply to their work. This primer cannot do justice to the complexity of DLT and its technological underpinnings, philosophical origins, and diverse business models. Instead, it provides a set of key questions to consider for assessing relevance of DLT to particular development challenges, a basic summary of the technical aspects of DLT and an illustrative list of DLT applications being tested across a range of sectors.

For DLT to become a viable tool for helping to overcome persistent, profound development challenges, it is not enough to think of it simply as another tool in the digital toolkit. Even at such an early stage of maturity, it is clear that the technology is not so much a tool as a multi-tool you could adapt to suit a variety of needs. This does not mean it is suited to all needs. DLT demands a clear understanding of what problem is to be solved.