Brief
- The integrity chain, built by Bayanichain, records DPWH contracts and milestones as digital agents validated by independent civic groups.
- The launch follows demonstrations on September 21, during which 130,000 people demanded responsibility for more than $ 33 billion to the alleged corruption of infrastructure.
- The project aims to rebuild trust by using cryptography and open validation systems.
The Philippines launched a transparency system based on blockchain for its Ministry of Public Works and Highways after mass demonstrations against presumed corruption in flood control projects of billions.
The integrity chain, developed by Bayanichain Ventures, was unveiled on Wednesday as a platform to record DPWH contracts and the project stages on a large book to the test.
The objective is to transform “government recordings into digital public assets which are immutable, verifiable and openly validated,” said Paul Soliman, CEO and co-founder of Bayanichain Decipher.
Once from DPWH to other agencies, the initiative could then help “protect the entire annual budget of the Philippines”, estimated at around 98 billion dollars, he said.
The project is part of a broader effort “to reshape responsibility in all the departments and each peso spent”, which makes responsibility “permanent, measurable and inevitable”, said Soliman.
“Public confidence will be rebuilt not on promises, but on cryptography, open validation and a system where citizens themselves can check the results,” he added.
The deployment comes in the wake of mass demonstrations, drawing around 130,000 people on September 21, which marked the 53rd anniversary of the martial law declared by former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., father of the current president. We remember the declaration for general violations of human rights, censorship and corruption.
The demonstrations demanded responsibility after the revelations of excessive contracts, lower quality construction and ghost projects in the country’s flood control program under the supervision of the DPWH.
More than $ 33 billion have been allocated to flood control projects over 15 years, according to the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Civic chain responsibility
Similar to a previous implementation In the budget and management department, the integrity chain ingests data directly based on DPWH systems, the reduction of each contract, the release of the budget and the milestone of the project as a digital public active.
Prismo, the orchestration layer, manages data management, encryption and validation. The platform takes place on the Polygon evidence network, an Ethereum compatible scaling solution which serves as a layer of consensus and transparency.
The files are then cryptographically sad and anchored in mind before reaching independent validators, so that “any attempt at refusal or manipulation of information becomes visible rather than hidden,” said Gelo Wong, director of growth and co-founder at Bayanichain, said Decipher.
Validators include independent civic organizations, non -governmental organizations, universities and media groups, among other sectors. These validators would examine and attest the entries, their own actions recorded as public archives to maintain responsibility.
The keys for validators are “secured in equipment, turned periodically and assigned to journals by randomization”, each validator action “recorded on the head as its own public active, ensuring that the fault or the bias is recorded transparent”, explained Wong.
Asked about the guarantees, Wong stressed the voting model for an organization of the framework, which prevents any sector from dominating the process. More than 40 non-governmental organizations have participated in the launch, providing a “broad and diversified basis for civic responsibility,” he added.
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