- The capital of Argentina has announced it will issue a blockchain-based digital ID to be issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
- With records of citizens’ birth, marriage certificates, proof of income, and academic verification, some are questioning the reach of surveillance by the government.
The Capital of Argentina Buenos Aires has announced that it will issue a blockchain-based digital ID. According to an announcement shared on September 28th, city residents can access their identity documents via a digital wallet powered by zkSync Era, an Ethereum scaling protocol using zero-knowledge rollups. Among the documents that can be viewed and verified on-chain, include birth certificates, marriage certificates, proof of income, and academic verification.
To achieve this incredible integration, the local government has teamed up with project infrastructure builder QuarkID, a digital identity protocol built by Web3 firm Extrimian. QuarkID wallets are powered by zkSync Era, an Ethereum scaling protocol using zero-knowledge rollups.
The open-source digital identity protocol notes;
Data stored in Quark ID wallets will be self-sovereign, allowing citizens to manage the delivery of their credentials when interacting with administrative services.
¡Hola Buenos Aires! Welcome to the ZK Nation 🇦🇷
Buenos Aires is teaming up with @Quark_ID to issue digital identification services to millions of citizens in the city, with zkSync Era serving as the anchor blockchain for the program.
Learn more: https://t.co/C2ogl1qobc
TL;DR… pic.twitter.com/H2doBrotvM
— zkSync (∎, ∆) (@zksync) September 28, 2023
According to Guillermo Villanueva, CEO of Extrimian, this is a monumental step towards a safer and more efficient future for government services in Latin America. The city views the development as a good initiative that will benefit the people of the city. Diego Fernandez, Buenos Aires’ secretary of innovation stated;
With this development, Buenos Aires becomes the first city in Latin America, and one of the first in the world, to integrate and promote this new technology and set the standard for how other countries in the region should use blockchain technology for the benefit of their people.
The announcement confirms that health data and payment management will be integrated in the future. Furthermore, this seems to be the first step in launching a blockchain-based solution across the country. A roadmap for the launch of the countrywide blockchain solution is set to be unveiled by the end of 2023. In Buenos Aires, the service will be available for around 2.5 million citizens, but after countrywide inclusion, this will expand to nearly 45 million Argentinians.
According to the project, this initiative brings data back into the hands of the individuals who own these documents—all while prioritizing privacy—zkSync makes digital ownership reliable, trustless, and secure. Interestingly, WorldCoin is under investigation in Argentina for privacy concerns in their collection, storage, and use of customer data.
Related: Argentina Investigating into Worldcoin Over Data Privacy, Concerns The Project Will be Shut Down
This is a demonstration of blockchain technology use cases and the Ethereum network robustness. This is not the first time that a government has utilized the network with the government of Maharashtra in India partnering with blockchain startup LegitDoc to issue tamper-proof diploma certificates in an effort to fight against fake degrees.
Ethereum (ETH) has recorded a positive impact adding nearly 4 percent in the last 24 hours. At the time of press, ETH is exchanging for $1,680 with an almost 6 percent positive change in the last 7 days.
