Indian State Issues Digital Caste Certificates On Polygon

The state government of Maharashtra has recently announced that it has joined hands with Polygon to issue verifiable caste certificates on its blockchain platform LegitDoc.

State Government Turns To Blockchain Verification

According to a Government of Maharashtra official, Shubham Gupta, the project, which introduces on-chain E-governance, has set a new global precedent for the adoption of Web3. 

In a LinkedIn post, he states, 

“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!”

Gupta also mentioned that the certificates were being issued via the proof-of-stake technology utilized by the Polygon network. LegitDoc, which is a Polygon-based blockchain network, was used by the state government to issue around 65,000 digital caste certificates. 

Gupta also cited an article written by LegitDoc CEO Neil Martis, which reveals that the project seeks to target 1.1 million economically challenged residents of the Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra, with over 70% representing the tribal population. Reportedly, other departments of the Maharashtra government are also following suit by moving to a blockchain-based storage and authentication system for documentation. These departments include MahaIT (the social justice department), school education departments, the minorities department, and NMMC-Mumbai. 

Verification Process On LegitDoc

The LegitDoc website points out that the digital documents will be easily verifiable (in just 10 seconds) and completely tamper-proof, without any risk of central failure, security lapses, or budget restraints. Furthermore, the authenticity of certification can be certified on-chain from any part of the world within just 10 seconds. This will prevent forgery efforts by malicious entities who try falsely claim government-provided benefits intended for the underprivileged. The project functions by pulling selective data from the Maharashtra government’s MahaOnline portal and uploading it on the Polygon blockchain. A QR code and certificates are then generated, which, in turn, are verified by different government departments. The process also has a provision for verifying printed certificates.

Polygon Offers Privacy-Protected Solution

Polygon has been stirring up the decentralized finance (DeFi) space for a while now. Most recently, it has been in the news for launching two new features for its platform: mobile burning capabilities for $MATIC tokens and a brand new Polygon Token Lists service. It soon followed up by announcing its upcoming Polygon ID, a new privacy-focused identity solution that creates a digital identity for users and protects their personal information. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.