The First-Ever​ Blockchain-Based​ Birth Certificate Issued In Brazil

Brazil issued the first birth certificates which were recorded by using blockchain technology.

As per a report on Sept 1^st, Álvaro de Medeiros Mendonça is one among the first children in Brazil to get their birth certificate recorded by exclusively using blockchain technology, without the necessity of having registry office as an intermediary. 

Streamlining registration process

The parents of the infant were called by the hospital for participating in the project initiated by Growth Tech, a tech company in integration with IBM. Waldyr Mendonça Junior, the father, stated that blockchain technology has made the procedure of registering newborns much faster, as it takes less than five minutes to do so.

The registration was made using Growth Tech’s Notary Ledgers platform, which enables services of a virtual notary. Hugo Pierre, the firm’s founder, noted that this start0up has come up with a new solution to enable better efficiency for recording birth certificates.

IBM’s blockchain leader in Latin America, Carlos Rischioto, said that this registration method of birth certificates has three stages. “Live Birth Statement” is the first stage, which is made by the hospital itself. Further, the parents are supposed to create a digital identity on the platform. After this, the data is sent to the notary office, where the certificate is verified and finalized.

Rischioto also explained that the new system will reduce bureaucratic challenges faced by parents in the birth registration process, making it more transparent and efficient.

Blockchain technology and medical data

Blockchain technology is progressively being implemented in the medical field for data management. In April 2019, a hospital based in South Korea partnered with Longenesis, a blockchain medical data marketplace; and Insilico Medicine, a biotechnology firm, to develop a blockchain-based data management solution.

Longenesis is purportedly going to provide Gil Medical Center with a secure platform for managing, uploading, and storing the patients’ private information, and enable the patients to access and control their data.