Indian Maharashtra state pivots to Polygon for digital caste certificates

The government of Maharashtra, one of the most industrialized states in India, has issued 65,000 digital caste certificates based on the Polygon blockchain technology.

“I’m excited to announce that the Government of Maharashtra (Gadchiroli district) has set a new global precedent for Web3 adoption—for on-chain E-governance,” wrote Shubham Gupta, an assistant collector,  and project officer in the Government of Maharashtra, in a LinkedIn post, adding:

“For the first time in India, Gadchiroli district (Etapalli Subdivision) will issue caste certificates to its citizens that are anchored on an open permissionless blockchain- verifiable within a matter of a few seconds!”

For the first time in ?? 65000 caste certificates have been issued on @0xPolygon network by the Maharashrta government.

A big thank you to @MartisNeil founder @LegitDocIndia for convincing and executing the project.

Thank you to our Young dynamic IAS officer @ShubhamGupta_11 pic.twitter.com/t00BZgWlrD

— Kashif Raza (@simplykashif) March 28, 2022

A caste certificate, also colloquially known as a community certificate, is a legal document issued in accordance with the Indian Constitution that serves as a documentary proof of a person belonging to a specific caste.

“Caste certificates are used to provide certain privileges to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to bring equality among all the citizens. Thus, a caste certificate is mandatory for receiving any such benefits for a person belonging to Scheduled Cast or Scheduled Tribe community,” per IndiaFilings.

Gupta further explained that new certificates were issued via a blockchain platform called LegitDoc, which is based on the proof-of-stake technology utilized by the Polygon network.

According to LegitDoc’s website, the system allows to issue and verify tamper-proof digital documents and is “free from any kind of central failure, security lapses, and budget constraints.” Later, such documents can ostensibly be verified from any part of the world “in just a matter of 10 seconds.”

As CryptoSlate reported, the Polygon blockchain has also recently become Tether’s main infrastructure partner in facilitating stablecoin payments in Lugano, Switzerland. In early March, the city’s mayor Michele Foletti announced that Bitcoin, USDT, and Lugano’s own LVGA Points token will be recognized as de-facto currencies.