Singaporean banking giant DBS has introduced a blockchain-powered solution that uses smart contracts to streamline the disbursement of government grants.

According to a local media report, DBS completed the pilot in collaboration with Enterprise Singapore and the Singapore Fintech Association.

As a part of the pilot, 27 local fintech companies received grants from the SFA using a permissioned blockchain developed by DBS. Perermissioned blockchains are partially decentralized and restrict who can participate in the network. Unlike public blockchains, permissioned blockchains require participants to be pre-approved.

DBS’s permissioned blockchain allows the ESG and the SFA to set the conditions for grant programs and ensures that only approved beneficiaries receive the grants.

Smart contracts verify these pre-determined conditions, and grants are disbursed automatically when the conditions are met. As such, DBS adds that the solution reduces the need for manual intervention and allows beneficiaries to receive cash payouts much faster.

DBS stated that the pilot was conducted to showcase how these programmable grants can improve the transparency and efficiency of grant disbursements. 

Han Kwee Juan, country head of DBS Singapore, expects the new solution to be “extended to more use cases, including milestone-based project payments, consumer rewards, and more.”

DBS also plans to explore more applications for the solution with more government agencies as part of Project Orchid. The Monetary Authority of Singapore launched the multi-year digital currency initiative last year to explore various use cases for digital money.

DBS pioneering blockchain innovation

Among other initiatives, DBS recently launched a blockchain-based pilot project in partnership with Ant International to enhance cross-border treasury and liquidity management. The DBS Treasury Tokens project also leverages DBS’s permissioned blockchain to support multi-currency treasury operations for Ant International, the company behind the Alipay+ mobile payment service.

Alongside its tokenization efforts, DBS is also progressing in the cryptocurrency sector. In July, the bank became a custodial partner for Paxos, a stablecoin issuer based in New York. In February, DBS expanded its services to offer crypto solutions to clients in Hong Kong.