Civic body using blockchain tech to prepare tamper-proof birth

The civic authorities of the New Town area in the eastern outskirts of the city has started the use of blockchain technology to prepare tamper-proof birth certificates, state government officials said.

A blockchain is a tamper-proof digital ledger. It is a continuously growing list of encrypted transactions called blocks. A block may contain any type of data such as unique digital identifiers of physical products.

The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has started giving such hi-tech birth certificate to applicants.

"Blockchain cannot be tampered by any means. So once you make the entries and the certificate is ready, it is 100 percent secured," a senior official of the Department of Information Technology & Electronics said at the Blockchain Congress concluded on Wednesday.

The Blockchain Congress was organised by the West Bengal government.

"We are trying to harness blockchain in a manner so that it can be used for the benefit of common man. We are holding this international level knowledge sharing event with this purpose in mind," state IT and finance minister Amit Mitra has said.

Mitra said the technology can be used for the purpose of preparing data bank in various fields such as healthcare, traffic management, agriculture and keeping land records.

Experts from the UK, Brazil, the USA and Belgium had taken part in the two-day event.