Comparing Blockchain and Traditional Databases for Isabela State University Administrative and Finance Department

Resumen

Amidst the ongoing issues regarding the transparency and efficiency of Philippine government operations, Senator Bam Aquino proposed Senate Bills, including the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability (CADENA) Act, to address the problems faced by the government. Inspired by the issues, this research studies if blockchain can offer much better improvements in the university administrative processes. Using a mixed methods approach, data was collected from 30 process owners of different units of Administrative and Finance Services (AFS) department. Respondents evaluated both systems based on the criteria of transparency, security, usability, performance, and scalability. Results show that blockchain outperformed traditional database systems in transparency (4.5 vs. 3.2) and security (4.6 vs. 3.5), owing to its decentralized and cryptographic features.  On the other hand, traditional databases still remain more friendly, particularly in the senior citizen process owners, and still demonstrate better performance and scalability in current implementations. The overall findings suggest that blockchain holds a better performance in terms of transparency and accountability; challenges related to usability and scalability must be addressed effectively for future adoption. The study concludes by recommending a training for future implementation so that the university administration will benefit.