<p>John Straw, a senior advisor to management consulting giant McKinsey’s London unit, has warned that blockchain technology could destroy banks in the country, and therefore, affect the collection of personal and corporate taxes.</p> <p>"Let's say that somebody actually does produce a working blockchain peer-to-peer [financial] system. It'll be a lending system that actually scales, we won't need banks any more,” Straw <a href="https://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/3082996/blockchain-nhs-mckinsey">said</a> at the recent Cloud and Infrastructure Live event hosted by media outlet Computing U.K.</p> <p>Straw added that no banks mean no central clearinghouses, and therefore, they don’t pay tax. “So who's going to pay for the NHS [National Health Service]?" asked Straw, who is also a senior advisor to tech giant IBM, according to his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnstraw/">LinkedIn profile</a>. </p> <p>He added that blockchain is a “democracy killer in many regards," and supported France’s and Germany’s decision to block the Facebook-led stablecoin project, Libra, as blockchain makes transactions “invisible to the taxman.”</p> <p>Straw, however, noted that blockchain-based smart contracts are “a bit of a joy,” as these help with quicker transactions, automatic remittances and require no lawyers, among other benefits.</p>