The Bank of England is inviting university students to submit their ideas about new use cases for distributed ledger technology.

The challenge, which closes on 7 December, asks entries to identify a concept, say in which business sector it could be applied, work out how any technical difficulties could be overcome, and decide what resources would be needed to get the idea up and running.

The BofE challenge website noted that as well as keeping a record of Bitcoin transactions, blockchain had many potential applications: “It’s helping insurance companies crack down on fraud and theft by giving diamonds a digital fingerprint, creating a public ledger that tracks the origin, sale and ownership of the world’s most precious stones. And many more novel applications are bubbling under. From how we identify individuals or verify the provenance of organic goods, to managing car leases or decentralising crowdfunding services.”

Teams of up to six university students can enter, with the opportunity to win a visit to the Bank of England to meet its projects, data and technology team, plus a six-week paid internship or a place at the bank’s graduate assessment centre.

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