Santa Cruz voted to approve the use of a blockchain-based digital wallet for government services and official documentation and is set to embark on a pilot program in July 2023.
The county of Santa Cruz in Northern California is one of the latest to embrace and implement blockchain-based results on a governmental level.
In a meeting of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors held on April 25, the members unanimously decided to proceed ahead with implementing the use of digital wallets for government services and official documentation purposes.
According to the final consensus of the meeting, the white-label digital wallet powered by Humbl will embark on a three-stage pilot program starting in July 2023. Beta testers during the pilot period will be mobile users seeking to access government services similar to bicycle enrollment and RV parking enrollment.
Different potential pilots would be for enrollment of park facilities, tracking volunteer hours, over-the-counter building permit distribution, and pet licensing.
Zach Friend, a supervisor for Santa Cruz County involved with the situation, spoke:
“We believe the value of digitizing paper documents, records, and services is an important step forward for the convenience of Santa Cruz County residents and improving equity and access for our community.”
Following a successful pilot, the county plans to give a formal report and a rollout plan no later than September 2023.
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The digital wallet project embarked to take shape in April 2022 after the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors collaborated with Humbl on the digital wallet technology infrastructure required to embark on a pilot program.
While local officials are pushing ahead with the plans for a digital wallet, an open conference forum on the county’s website revealed concern from local residents.
One similar commenter by the name of Becky Seinbruner questioned to “ suspend further action and progress ” on the digital wallet developments. Seinbruner raised concerns over “ inappropriate use and deals of personal data ” on the part of the infrastructure provider Humbl.
According to the official documents, during the pilot period, local officials will be assessing if users trust the underlying technology and understand what's happening “ under the hood. ”
(SAVANNAH FORTIS, Cointelegraph, 2023)