The government is hoping to lure more business to the Isle of Man through a ’blockchain’ office.

Its Digital Isle of Man agency is publicising its Isle of Man Blockchain Office and Sandbox.

It wants the island to become an international hub for blockchain businesses.

But what does ’blockchain’ mean?

The marketing team came up with this explanation:

’Blockchain is a permanent record log of all the transactions that were ever verified on a business network, contained in a distributed ledger.

’This allows any participant to see the system of record (the ledger) with a cryptographic audit trail. The system is protected by using a reference to the previous block ("hash"), which is encrypted.

’Breaking into the system would be evident, so that any illegitimate changes to the system can be detected and cancelled.

In the blockchain, all transactions are recorded including information on the date, time, participants and amount of every single transaction. Each node in the network owns a full copy of the blockchain.

’The transactions are verified by the other participants in the blockchain.

’Mathematical principles also ensure that these nodes automatically and continuously agree about the current state of the ledger and every transaction recorded in it.

;If anyone attempts to corrupt a transaction, the nodes will not arrive at a consensus and will thereby refuse to incorporate the transaction in the blockchain. Every transaction is accessible and thousands of nodes unanimously agree that a transaction has occurred on date X at time Y.;

The office will help blockchain businesses through current and future regulation.

The main function of the office is to ’facilitate a dialogue between businesses and local and international regulators, where appropriate, and to help blockchain platforms design and future-proof their concepts in accordance with regulation’.

The office also provides expertise and guidance, marketing support, and will facilitate and encourage collaboration between companies.

By following the application process, businesses will also have the opportunity to join the ’Blockchain Sandbox’, a testbed that will provide a collaborative space for businesses to live-test their innovative product, service or delivery mechanism, and where any risks to ordinary financial consumers and the financial system are strictly contained.

Lyle Wraxall, the chief executive officer of Digital Isle of Man, said: ’The response to the launch of the blockchain office has been tremendous, with a number of premium blockchain businesses and emerging starts-ups approaching the Office for early participation, confirming the Isle of Man’s position on the world stage as a highly-respected and sought after jurisdiction for digital businesses.

’There are no signs of interest slowing, and we look forward to collaborating with these innovative pioneers who are driving blockchain technology.’

Digital Isle of Man says that a robust selection process is in place to ensure that all participants are of the highest quality

Early participants are not being charged fees for the facility.