- Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires has unveiled a solution that allows residents to store their critical documents in a blockchain wallet
- Dubbed QuarkID, the solution uses zero-knowledge technology as developed by Matter Labs
- The wallet will be available to the city’s dwellers from next month and allow the storage of birth and marriage certificates
Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires is shifting from just hosting key blockchain events to embracing the technology with the unveiling of the QuarkID wallet. The blockchain wallet will use Matter Labs zero-knowledge technology and allow users to store their identity documents such as marriage and birth certificates with other documents such as academic verification available from November. Buenos Aires’ efforts resemble a recent announcement by the European Union that it’s working on a blockchain-based wallet to assist in credentials verifications, showing an interest by countries to embrace decentralized technology.
Bringing a Government Closer to Citizens
According to the city’s Secretary of Innovation Diego Fernandez, the move allows Buenos Aires to be an example to other countries and cities in Latin America looking to embrace blockchain technology.
¡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
The wallet’s developer Extrimian, through its CEO Guillermo Villanueva, said that the wallet “creates a closer relationship between a government and its citizens” without compromising on the security of the documents.
QuarkID users will have full ownership of their data and will use it to access administrative services in the city. Its developer also plans to enable the wallet’s users to use it to make payments and store health data.
Over 2 Million Users by Year End
Buenos Aires aims to have more than two million citizens using the wallet before the end of the year. Its move to use a blockchain-based identity solution comes as Argentina and other countries like Kenya are probing World Coin over the security of personal data collected during registration.
Being the country’s capital, it’s to be seen whether the wallet’s success will influence the Argentine government to roll it out to all citizens.
