Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, is taking significant strides toward incorporating blockchain technology into its administrative processes. Starting from October, city residents will be able to access their identity documents via a digital wallet, as announced on September 28.
The first documents to be made available on the blockchain include birth and marriage certificates, proof of income, and academic verification. Future integrations will include health data and payment management, with a nationwide rollout of the blockchain-based solution to be detailed by the end of 2023.
QuarkID, a digital identity protocol by Web3 company Extrimian, is the technology foundation for this project. The wallets for QuarkID are powered by zkSync Era, an Ethereum scaling protocol utilizing zero-knowledge rollups, a technology that allows one party to prove the validity of a statement to another party without disclosing any specific information about the statement itself. Guillermo Villanueva, CEO of Extrimian, celebrated the initiative as a significant move towards a more secure and efficient future for government services in Latin America.
The data stored within the wallets will be self-sovereign, permitting citizens to control their credentials delivery when dealing with the government, businesses, and other individuals. ZkSync Era will operate as the settlement layer for QuarkID, ensuring each citizen possesses the accurate credentials.
The Argentine government and Buenos Aires city officials view this digital identity framework as a public good. Diego Fernandez, Buenos Aires’ secretary of innovation, stated that the city is the first in Latin America, and among the first globally, to integrate and promote this novel technology, setting a benchmark for other countries in the region.
Moreover, Argentine authorities are also examining a similar project in the country named Worldcoin. In August, local authorities announced an investigation into privacy concerns surrounding Worldcoin’s data collection, storage, and usage. Worldcoin, launched globally in July and founded by Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, is also facing scrutiny in Europe and Africa. The project uses retinal scans for user verification.
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