In short
- Integrity Chain, constructed by BayaniChain, logs DPWH contracts and milestones as digital property validated by impartial civic teams.
- The launch follows protests on September 21, throughout which 130,000 individuals demanded accountability over $33 billion in alleged infrastructure corruption.
- The challenge goals to rebuild belief utilizing cryptography and open validation methods.
The Philippines has launched a blockchain-based transparency system for its Division of Public Works and Highways after mass protests over alleged corruption in flood-control initiatives value billions.
Integrity Chain, developed by BayaniChain Ventures, was unveiled on Wednesday as a platform to report DPWH contracts and challenge milestones on a tamper-proof ledger.
The aim is to show “authorities data into digital public property which can be immutable, verifiable, and brazenly validated,” BayaniChain CEO and co-founder Paul Soliman instructed Decrypt.
As soon as expanded from the DPWH to different businesses, the initiative may later assist “shield your entire annual finances of the Philippines,” estimated at roughly $98 billion, he stated.
The challenge is a part of a broader effort “to reshape accountability throughout each division and each peso spent,” making accountability “everlasting, measurable, and unavoidable,” Soliman stated.
“Public belief shall be rebuilt not on guarantees, however on cryptography, open validation, and a system the place residents themselves can confirm outcomes,” he added.
The rollout comes within the wake of mass protests drawing an estimated 130,000 individuals on September 21, which marked the 53rd anniversary of martial regulation declared by former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., father of the present president. The declaration is remembered for widespread human rights abuses, censorship, and corruption.
Protests demanded accountability after revelations of overpriced contracts, substandard building, and ghost initiatives within the nation’s flood-control program underneath the DPWH’s oversight.
Over $33 billion was allotted to flood-control initiatives throughout 15 years, in line with the Australian Institute of Worldwide Affairs.
On-chain civic accountability
Much like an earlier implementation on the Division of Finances and Administration, Integrity Chain ingests information instantly from DPWH methods, minting every contract, finances launch, and challenge milestone as a digital public asset.
Prismo, the orchestration layer, manages information dealing with, encryption, and validation. The platform runs on Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake community, an Ethereum-compatible scaling resolution that serves as its consensus and transparency layer.
The data are then cryptographically time-stamped and anchored on-chain earlier than reaching impartial validators, in order that “any try and withhold or manipulate info turns into seen relatively than hidden,” Gelo Wong, chief progress officer and co-founder at BayaniChain, instructed Decrypt.
Validators embody impartial civic organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, and media teams, amongst different sectors. These validators would evaluation and attest to the entries, with their very own actions logged as public data to take care of accountability.
Keys for validators are “hardware-secured, rotated periodically, and assigned to evaluations via randomization,” with every validator motion “recorded on-chain as its personal public asset, making certain that misconduct or bias is transparently logged,” Wong defined.
Requested about safeguards, Wong pointed to the framework’s one-organization-one-vote mannequin, which prevents any sector from dominating the method. Greater than 40 non-governmental organizations participated at launch, offering a “large and diversified base of civic accountability,” he added.
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