In a historic integration of blockchain with bureaucratic processes, Buenos Aires, the lively capital of Argentina, will provide its 15 million inhabitants with the opportunity to acquire identity documents through a digital wallet, as announced on September 28. Set to launch in October, the first documents to be uploaded to the blockchain will range from birth and marriage certificates to income statements and academic validations. The city has also projected the incorporation of health data and payment management into this digitized system. Ambitiously, a national deployment plan for this blockchain-based modality is anticipated by the end of 2023.
La technologie et les visionnaires derrière le projet
Propelling this initiative is QuarkID, an avant-garde digital identity system developed by Web3 company Extrimian. Behind QuarkID wallets lies zkSync Era technology, which is a blockchain-based protocol on Ethereum. This technology utilizes what is called ‘ZK-rollups,’ an innovative way of processing transactions. With ZK-rollups, it is possible to prove that a transaction is valid without revealing all the details of that transaction.
Guillermo Villanueva, CEO of Extrimian, emphasized the magnitude of this endeavor, stating its essential role in shaping a ‘safer and more efficient future for government services in Latin America.’ The data housed in these wallets bestow upon its users self-sovereignty, facilitating seamless delivery of their credentials during interactions with government agencies, businesses, and peers. zkSync Era ensures the accuracy and validity of each individual’s credentials, acting as QuarkID’s settlement layer.
Moreover, both the Argentine national government and officials of the city of Buenos Aires aspire for this digital identity framework to be seen as a public good. As articulated by Diego Fernandez, the city’s Secretary of Innovation, this initiative marks Buenos Aires as a trailblazer in Latin America, championing the fusion of blockchain technology for the public welfare. Simultaneously, on a parallel tangent, Argentine authorities are investigating another digital identity company, Worldcoin, due to emerging data privacy concerns.
