Buenos Aires to Bring Blockchain-Based Digital ID to Millions of Citizens

The city of Buenos Aires has announced that it will roll out a blockchain-based, privacy-focused digital ID wallet starting in October. The Quarkid project, previously known as Tangoid, will allow its users to download a “self-sovereign” wallet to hold their birth and marriage certificates, with more digital documents to be added later this year.

Buenos Aires to Roll Out Blockchain-Based ID Program

The City of Buenos Aires government announced the deployment of a digital, blockchain-based “self-sovereign” ID project for its citizens. The wallet, called Quarkid, formerly known as Tangoid and scheduled to be operating by last January, will supposedly allow its users to exert full ownership of their data, granting only trusted and permissioned third parties access.

The Quarkid wallet will use Zksync Era, a zero-knowledge (ZK) Ethereum L2 (Layer 2) protocol, as its base, allowing the use of this kind of mathematical proof for privacy and confidentiality purposes. Quarkid was co-created by Extrimian, an Argentine institutionally focused blockchain services company, which aims to extend this service to the whole country.

On the significance of this move, Extrimian CEO Guillermo Villanueva stated:

This is a monumental step towards a safer and more efficient future for government services in Latin America. Quarkid creates a closer relationship between a government and its citizens while also bringing digital identity practices and security standards to Latin America.

Document Availability and Future

The first phase of the rollout of Quarkid will start in October, with the government of Buenos Aires allowing citizens to claim basic documents, including birth and marriage certificates. However, later this year, in November, citizens of Buenos Aires will be able to claim documents like proof-of-income and academic verification using their Quarkid wallets. At the end of this year, the government will design a roadmap to expand its services to more than 2.5 million citizens.

Diego Fernandez, Secretary of Innovation of Buenos Aires and one of the supporters behind the idea of digital identity, explained that with this innovation, the city would “set the standard for how other countries in the region should use blockchain technology for the benefit of their people.”

Furthermore, Quarkid hopes to extend its implementation to all 45 million citizens in Argentina eventually. From there, it aims to use this experience as a launchpad for a potential collaboration with the market in Latin America.

What do you think about Quarkid and the adoption of digital identity in Buenos Aires? Tell us in the comments section below.

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