Taipei Teams Up With The IOTA Foundation To Integrate Bitcoin Technology With ID Features
The city of Taipei has announced that it has struck a partnership with blockchain company IOTA Foundation through which the two will work towards the integration of blockchain technology into the country’ identification card features.
The partnership between the IOTA Foundation and Taipei City was confirmed by Wei-bin Lee, the commissioner of the Department of Information Technology. He revealed that IOTA would work hand in hand with Taipei-based startup BiiLabs in a project that will focus on digital ID cards for citizens.
The partnership is part of Taipei’s plans to take advantage of blockchain technology to tie up ID services with various projects although Lee did not go into the specifics of the digital project. However, the information that was revealed highlights the fact that they aim to create Digital Citizen Cards that will be focused on an identification process that is tamper-proof so that it can protect users from theft.
Lee said: “We'll be starting with related applications for Digital Citizen Card that can be used as a platform. We also seek to boost the authentication and integrity checks for municipality-to-municipality/institution-to-institution data exchange (such as medical records)."
The move is part of the city’s transformation plan towards becoming a smart city. The Information Technology Commissioner also stated that the city welcomes any additional suggestions or proposals that will contribute towards the achievement of the smart city objective. Lee also stated that despite Taipei’s interest in the adoption of blockchain, the city has not adopted any cryptocurrency.
Blockchain technology is the underlying technology behind digital currencies but it also has other uses such as smart contracts and the creation of secure systems. It is an appealing option for example in the case of digital and secure IDs because blockchain cannot be hacked and is thus secure. Cryptocurrency is currently a sensitive topic especially with the recent high volatility and the fact that digital currencies have been highly associated with money laundering and illegal trade. Numerous countries have also taken an aggressive stance against cryptos.
Despite the massive cloud of negative reports looming over digital currency, blockchain technology still has a lot of appeal due to the fact that it has a lot of untapped potential. Taipei officials believe that Blockchain has a lot to offer towards the digitization of the city. As a result, they have created a task force that will be responsible for determining how to go about the implementation of this digital ledger technology.