News Story

KMi at the Palace of Westminster: Exploring Blockchain for Society and Economy

Friday 12 Dec 2025

On 3rd December, KMi’s Aisling Third was invited to take part in an International Roundtable on Blockchain and Digital Assets at the Palace of Westminster, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Blockchain Technologies. The goal was to gather experts from across the world to give evidence to the APPG on ways in which distributed ledger technology could, should, and should not, be used for the benefit of UK society and economy. The session was moderated by Prof. Naseem Naqvi, President of the British Blockchain Association, with contributors sharing insights from research, healthcare, digital identity, finance, journalism, policy and economic development, among others, and covering a wide range of perspectives and ideas.

Dr Third discussed the relevance of the recent work she and Prof John Domingue have been doing on the three pillars of Trust, Accountability, and Autonomy, focusing specifically on the widespread tendency to assume that words like “trust” have a fixed and precise meaning, and the subsequent confusion that can arise due to differences in understanding of what that might be. She also argued for the importance of ensuring effective input from all stakeholders in any blockchain use cases; in particular, ensuring a diversity of backgrounds. She drew the connection with Teresa Sides’ recently successful viva defence of her work investigating attitudes towards AI in NHS Primary Care, and how they vary significantly between different levels of NHS hierarchy.

The Roundtable was very stimulating and informative, and reaffirmed that there is widespread interest in evidence-based methods for getting the best out of these technologies and avoiding the risks.