Regional governments in India are taking steps towards blockchain adoption in their various areas whether it is developing blockchain districts or promoting blockchain businesses and applications. The latest in this trend involves two local governments in West Bengal that plan to use blockchain-based solution to administer birth certificates.
The respective government organizations responsible for recording births, Bankura Municipal Corporation and Durgapur Municipal Corporation will use a blockchain system developed Dutch blockchain startup, Lynked.world. The blockchain-based solution will allow officials of the agencies to process requests, and to verify identities and legal documents among other functions.
Founder and CEO of Lynked World Arun Kumar observed that the new system which uses blockchain, simplifies what used to be a cumbersome process. He said that the ID verification system where citizens need to stand before an agent should be replaced by the new system.
How the blockchain-based System will work
Kumar described the process involved in the new system. He explained:
“These Birth and other certificates would be digitally authenticated by issuing authorities [municipalities] and that authentication will be stored on blockchain which facilitates verification of these documents by any third party organization to whom owners provide access.
He further explained:
“Basically Blockchain would be used to write the hash value of certificate together with owner of certificate and who issued it for the authentication and verification.”
Lynked.world platform will use a native token called the LYNK token which will be used by citizens for creating applications. With the app, which serves as the wallet that securely holds personal information contained in a user’s document, like birth certificate, academic certs, passport, and medical records. Users can connect to the blockchain network and access their birth certificates, and other ID details through a QR code.
According to Kumar, the platforms for both municipalities are set for launch and can start receiving applications from next month. He estimates that 1 million birth documents will be placed on the blockchain before the end of 2018.
Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.
