Austria launches blockchain project for communication during pandemic.
A subsidiary block chain called Ignis, developed by software company Jelurida, will be part of QualiSig’s new project. The goal of the project is safe, blockchain-based communication between the Austrian authorities, the country’s institutions and citizens during a pandemic. Monitoring data will be the responsibility of citizens.
Jelurida develops and supports the Ardor and Nxt blockchains. The Ardor blockchain is a decentralized PoS blockchain that presents the architecture of chains of children. This means that Ardor is the parent chain, which serves as a level of security and consensus, while there are subsidiary chains, such as Ignis, which rely on Ardor but provide additional functions, said co-founder and director of the company Lior Jaffe.
According to a press release, the company has now taken on the role of a partner who will provide consulting services for the QualiSig project, launched by the Austrian trust service provider (A-Trust) in partnership with several organizations, including Donau-Universität Krems State University.
The goal of the project is to create a secure channel for the exchange of data between citizens, state bodies and institutions authorized by the authorities, the announcement said.
The project received a grant of about $ 67,000 from the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology of Austria and the Federal Ministry of Digital Development and Economics.
Jaffe from Jelurida said that in the situation with QualiSig, protected information about the Austrian cases of COVID-19 will be stored as a marker on the Ignis blockchain. It is the citizens who will use it, and therefore “information will be securely stored on their device and transmitted to the blockchain in encrypted form, which only they can decrypt”.
People can launch the Ardor light node, which is a mobile application that supports synchronization with the blockchain, which is “very cheap, simple and has low requirements.” This allows them to check the entire level of consensus that protects their data, and then leads to an increase in their own security, says the head of Jelurida.
Alternatively, they can launch the full blockchain node, which Jaffe describes as “relatively simple,” since the full Ardor node can be launched on the phone. Finally, people can use the official QualiSig app.
Lior adds to this that “a government using a public blockchain could be the ultimate form of democracy.” He adds that the government is not only elected by its citizens, but also gives them “the ability to control their data and decide how to share it. This will help prevent future privacy leaks and data hacks by governments and possibly tech firms, as we have seen quite a bit in the past. ”