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The Russian state of Nizhny Novgorod is trialing blockchain application in state administration, Forklog reported.
The state and municipal authorities of the region have reportedly signed an agreement with the blockchain project Vostok.
Announced by blockchain startup Waves in April 2018, the Vostok project consists of the global Vostok blockchain platform and the Vostok system integrator for enterprise and government IT systems. In late 2018, Waves raised $120 million to launch Vostok and was seeking another $120 million this year for the project.
The state of Nizhny Novgorod is testing “City N”, an application running on the Vostok platform, to offer the opportunity to the residents to “distribute their own taxes between the categories of budget expenditures.”
In addition to tax filing, the platform will also allow verifying the identity of Nizhny Novgorod residents via integration with the online public services portal Gosuslugi. It will also automatically determine the size of the contributions from the residents to the local budget, the report said.
Gleb Nikitin, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, said that new technologies will encourage residents to be “more actively involved in managing their city through proactive, so-called “participatory” budgeting.”
“The blockchain technology will allow us to ensure maximum transparency and honesty in relations between a person and the state. This is an opportunity to build equal relations, when a citizen sees his contribution to the overall development, and he has the opportunity to ask more strictly from the state,” Nikitin added.
The blockchain-based system is expected to be launched as a pilot during the formation of the budget for 2020, Forklog stated.
Earlier this year, National Center for Informatization, a subsidiary of Russian manufacturing conglomerate Rostec, entered into a partnership with Vostok for blockchain solutions intended for joint infrastructure projects.
