Hyland, a content services provider for organizations across the globe, announced earlier this week it has joined forces with Hedera Hashgraph, an enterprise-grade public ledger, to presented a proof of concept to the Texas Secretary of State to evaluate blockchain technology for the purpose of securing and verifying government-issued records. The duo claimed that this is the first proof of concept spearheaded by the newly-formed Texas Blockchain Council, a trade association that promotes the use of blockchain technology in Texas.
Hyland further revealed that the proof of concept focuses on issuing electronic Apostilles, or e-Apostilles. An “Apostille” is a way of authenticating public documents that is recognized internationally.
“The process was codified in 1961 by the Hague Conference on Private International Law in an agreement known as the Apostille Convention. 118 countries are signatories to the Convention, meaning they recognize Apostilles issued by other signatory governments as legally valid documents.”
Mance Harmon, Co-Founder and CEO of Hedera Hashgraph, further stated that the Hedera platform may be used as a secure protocol network layer for many kinds of government services.
“Hedera makes it practical and cost-effective to bring the transparency and accountability of blockchain/public ledgers to a wide variety of identity, compliance, fraud mitigation, and other use cases. We’re thrilled to show the Texas Secretary of State and Hyland how blockchain/public ledgers enable government agencies to cost-effectively deliver next-generation services to their constituents.”
Natalie Smolenski, Business Development Lead for Hyland’s Blockchain Solutions, added:
“A blockchain can be utilized as a digital notary. That makes it perfect for validating official records, including identity documents and credentials. Governments will be adopting blockchain to prevent fraud, mitigate risk, create efficiencies, and lower costs.”