The Canadian government issued a press release on January 19th, announcing a live trial of Ethereum\'s Blockchain protocol to record government contracts. The government hopes to make its administration more transparent with the new technology, whose distributed ledger makes a transparent and immutable record of every transaction on the Blockchain.

Canada\'s government research body, NRC (National Research Council of Canada), via a program called IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program) is using a platform called Catena. This platform, established by blockchain start-up company Bitaccess, will publish government contributions and grants on its open-source blockchain, providing the Canadian populace with more information on what its government is doing.

NRC IRAP is the first body to test the new technology, and has already released information about contributions. As part of the trial, the NRC IRAP will also assess how blockchain-based tech could be applied to other government applications.

While the announcement is notable for public information transparency, NRC is not the first official Canadian body to test the waters of Blockchain technology. Its central bank, The Bank of Canada, has already started investigating Blockchain-based platforms, especially in connection with settlement systems. \"Project Jasper\" is now in its third phase, conducting research into settlements, and the resilience of securities in periods of stress.