Argentina’s capital city is leaning into Web3 with a new blockchain- and zero-knowledge proof-based system that promises citizens faster and more reliable access to their most important government documents.
Buenos Aires’ new service, QuarkID, was created in partnership with blockchain digital identity company Extrimian. Set to be released in October, QuarkID acts as a private decentralized wallet that will give users access to digital and verifiable versions of documents like certificates for birth, marriage, and divorce.
Before setting up a QuarkID account, each citizen must go through a KYC (know your customer) check just as they would to validate their identity with the city government. The service then utilizes Matter Labs’ zkSync Era Layer-2 protocol as a settlement layer to ensure each document a person claims in their wallet actually belongs to them through signed transactions on the blockchain that don’t include personal information. At no point is a personal document stored in a centralized database or on-chain, which makes such data impervious to hacks, according to Diego Fernández, the secretary of innovation for Buenos Aires' city government.
“People will soon use the advantages of blockchain without knowing what they're using. And that's possible. That's a way to evolve,” Fernández told Fortune.
The QuarkID platform was developed using open-source technology and international standards with the hope that future Buenos Aires city documents can be verified by other governments around the world. Fernández said keeping the technology open source also enables the private sector to build applications that could utilize QuarkID.
“If I need to go to the States, for example, and rent a car, I just pull out my driver's license and my passport and I'm ready to go. If I need to do that in the online—in the digital—world, that's much more complex,” he said.
In November, the city government plans to roll out other types of official documents on QuarkID, including proof of income and certificates of academic attendance, which are important documents used to claim government benefits.
