RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Blockchain networks continue to gain momentum in Brazil after the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), and the Federal Audit Office (TCU) announced the launch of blockchain next Monday, May 30.
Among the goals of blockchain is to connect institutions to facilitate the “adoption” of this type of technology in solutions focused on the public interest and increase the transparency of public spending, the TCU said in a press statement.
According to the TCU, the use of a blockchain “raises expectations of the contribution of this technology to improve security and transparency in the transactions of public entities.”
The network they will start using next Monday will run on Hyperledger Besu 2.0, which uses code that connects companies directly to a public blockchain, in this case, Ethereum. The open-source code base is nearly identical to another Ethereum enterprise solution called Pantheon, developed by Ethereum startup ConsenSys.
The non-profit project is being developed between Brazil’s public and private sectors. During the network’s launch, “potential participants in the network, who are already in the trial phase and have discussed technical aspects based on their usage experience, will be consulted.”
BRAZIL HAS EXPERIENCE USING BLOCKCHAIN
This is not the first time the Brazilian public sector has used blockchains. As of April 2021, 156,000 pages of documents have already been notarized using the e-Notary platform.
Virtual authentication allows citizens to send their documents to public entities or individuals and legal entities via WhatsApp, email, or any other electronic format. Thus, they can conclude transactions with the same value as the original document.
In this way, citizens from all over the country can provide various services via videoconference without traveling. The citizen has direct access to the notary via a computer, tablet, or cell phone.
PANDEMIC SPURS BLOCKCHAIN ADOPTION
The emergence of the coronavirus in 2021 led to strong user adoption of blockchains, with average monthly growth of 24% that year.
According to authorities, demand for the blockchain-based digital document authentication solution grew 163% on a monthly average, peaking in the last month of February 2021, when more than 71,000 pages were authenticated.