Japan-based Tech Bureau is offering Mijin, a private Blockchain technology in “The Blockchain Lab” at Digipolis, to the Belgian municipal governments of Ghent and Antwerp. The private Blockchain will be offered to Digipolis which is an organization for inter-municipal Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the two Belgian cities, as a part of The Blockchain Lab to demonstrate the possibilities of Blockchain technology in efficient and reliable administrative services.

Digital Antwerp

The city of Antwerp is aiming to create a “digital Antwerp” and this would involve embracing new technologies in order to create smoother and efficient administrative framework for the city.

The city aims to implement an open ICT platform called “ACPasS: Antwerp City Platform as a Service.”

For this to work, they are partnering up with private companies and will provide API to private players including start-ups, the aim being to create digital documentation utilizing Blockchain. The ambitious project includes creating a life certificate that will be a registration of events like birth, marriage and death, a certificate of residence and lifelong study, which is an educational database and a public decision making that stores mayoral, city council and other administrative decisions.

So far, 32 companies have expressed interest in the project.

Tech Bureau’s Mijin a contender

Mijin will be offered to the Belgian cities of Ghent and Antwerp as a Proof of Concept. Tech Bureau also has a public Blockchain tool called NEM. It is using a combination of public and private Blockchain technologies which aims to offer low-cost and secure administrative services in Belgium. Interestingly, there is an element of choice available. A Tech Bureau spokesperson told Cointelegraph:

“Mijin can collaborate smoothly with NEM and public Blockchain so that municipal government can choose or use them at any time. By using Mijin, they can reduce design, develop, debug costs, then straightly jump into the define phase to start using Blockchain.”

Tech Bureau’s NEM Blockchain has also been utilized in creating administrative services in the past, where the Apostille tool within NEM was used to create “Landstead,” a land and property registry. Interestingly, the project was part of a hackathon and was undertaken in a span of just one week.

Japanese Blockchain exports the next big thing?

Japan has been a world-renowned exporter of technology for decades. It is interesting to see that the country is now taking lead in the Blockchain space as well.

We have already covered Tech Bureau’s efforts to create a point system with Hitachi recently using Mijin. Now Mijin is also getting positive attention from other countries like US, Thailand, Laos, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.

If Japanese Blockchain technology can be used to simplify administrative processes securely, it will surely take some sting out of the long-drawn bureaucratic process and make life easier for weary citizens of many countries who are burdened with civic processes that are expensive, cumbersome and involve the gauntlet of collecting stamps and signatures.