The Philippine government announced that it would notarize its polygon blockchain document on the same day the network was temporarily suspended.
Maria Francesca Montes Rosario, secretary of the Philippine Budget Control Bureau, announced in a Facebook post Wednesday that government blockchain transparency is currently live.
According to a report on Thursday by the local Crypto News Outlet Bitpinas, Del Rosario said at the launch event that the blockchain addresses the issues presented by artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes, and that bad actors prevent the forgery of government documents.
“We are using cutting-edge technologies such as AI, blockchain and satellite imaging to enhance our public policy and governance methods,” added Del Rosario.
Paul Soliman, CEO of BayaniChain, a company that supports the initiative, said the blockchain will be used to track government budget documents. “This collaboration between the Budget and Administration (DBM) and Bayani Chain sets precedents of fiscal transparency and accountability,” he said.
Screenshots of the Philippine government’s document verification service. sauce: Philippine Budget Management Bureau
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How the Document Verification System Works
In this type of application, the blockchain acts as a public database that cannot be edited and provides a permanent record-keeping system for notarization purposes. Bitpinas said the Budget Management Bureau’s Action Document Release System generates budget documents and the representation of the data is engraved on the polygon blockchain.
Although the exact details of the implementation are not disclosed, similar systems simply store the hash on the blockchain. A hash is a fixed-length alphanumeric string that comes from any data and is often used to represent data. Checking whether the data generates the same hash as the provided one, guarantees that it is the same data that was used to generate the provided hash.
The official website of the Philippine government blockchain-based document verification service allows users to search for documents and scan QR codes. A code or search provides the system with a special allocation release order (SARO) or cash allocation notice (NCA) document code to verify its important details.
Related: Bank of England Mars CANNING CBDC Plan: Report
Poor timing of polygons
The Polygon Heimdall V2 Mainnet (a consensus client for the polygon proof stake chain) went down on Wednesday, exactly the same day the Philippine government announced its initiative. The cause was suspected to be a “consensus bug,” the Polygon team told Cointelegraph.
The Polygon problem was resolved within 3.5 hours, allowing the BOR layer to continue generating blocks independently, preventing the network from completely stopping activity. Still, many front services have been affected, and Block Explorer does not reflect on ongoing network activity.
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