Tech Roundup: Government adopts blockchain technology

This week. E-commerce is big in Brazil, but online shoppers still tend to be richer. The government makes the use of blockchain in documents official. Brazilian startup aims to become the ‘Apple of urban agriculture.’

Brazil to use blockchain for official documents

The Brazilian government has made the use of blockchain for document certification official policy. A normative instruction published by the National Institute of Information Technology (ITI) last week formalizes new rules for the use of the technology in official government documents.

How it works. Blockchain will be used as a timestamp, that is, an imprint that certifies the exact date and time on which a file was created. This however will not validate the documents themselves, but only serve as a “digital HD” to store logs. 

• Thus, the use of distributed ledger technology (a sort of non-centralized database, which is key to blockchain) will be but one component in the new timestamp architecture specified by ITI.
• The system time source will continue to serve as the timing audit system maintained by ITI, with which all timestamp systems are synchronized. However, each timestamp authority will have to maintain a log of their timestamps, clock synchronization, and audit records.

Why it matters. For experts, this new system architecture will democratize and help accelerate the adoption of technologies related to digital certificates in Brazil, facilitating data traceability and security. In addition, the new system may also increase competitiveness in the digital certification market and improve the quality of services.

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