In an interesting turn of technology and governance, the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, is gearing towards integrating blockchain technology into its administrative functioning. According to the announcement made on September 28, the city’s 15 million residents can access their identity documents via a digital wallet from October. The first documents to be available on-chain include birth and marriage certificates, academic verification, and income proofs. Health data and payment management may be added to the system in the future.
This integration of technology into government bureaucracy has been made possible by QuarkID, a digital identity protocol built by a firm called Extrimian. At the heart of these QuarkID wallets is the Ethereum scaling protocol, zkSync Era, which uses zero-knowledge rollups. This innovative technology allows one party to prove a statement’s truth to another without revealing any specific data about this statement.
Data stored in these wallets will allow citizens to manage the delivery of their credentials independently. This move towards decentralization improves security while interacting with businesses, government, and other individuals.
However, the move towards blockchain-based digitization has aroused some questions too. Could this new system compromise citizens’ privacy, especially if it fails to manage data correctly? And how about the digital divide in the society – could such a seemingly progressive move exclude those who lack the resources for such access, thereby unintentionally creating a technology haves and have-nots scenario?
Amid these differing viewpoints, Diego Fernandez, Buenos Aires’ Secretary of Innovation, views this development as a public good. As per him, Buenos Aires will become the first Latin American city, to integrate and promote this new technology, setting a benchmark for using blockchain technology for the people’s benefit. The Argentine government and Buenos Aires city envision digital identity to aid their citizens and improve efficiency.
This initiative’s success could potentially set the stage for other cities and countries to follow suit, further making blockchain technology a mainstream part of bureaucracy and administrative functioning. However, the need to address privacy and access issues remains paramount while treading this new path. Only time will tell how this adventurous tryst between blockchain technology and governance will pan out.
Source: Cointelegraph
