Mexico to put public biddings on blockchain to create ‘smart contracts’

For the first time anywhere in Latin America, a public bidding process on blockchain will take place in Mexico this month.

“The unprecedented public bidding process will take place on Ethereum-based smart contracts,” says Yolanda Martinez, coordinator of the National Digital Strategy (EDN), a Mexican federal government agency.

Martinez explains that the trial run of public tender processes in Mexico has been in the development process since September 2016. Later in August, specific details will be made public.

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“The new model for public bidding will establish the guidelines for those who decide they want to form part of the network, the actions they must carry out to form part of the network as well as the technological requirements and commitments they must take on in order to form part of the network,” she says.

The Ethereum-based public bidding process will be monitored by independent experts, who will be in charge of guaranteeing the transparency of the process.

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“We will continue to promote the use of emerging technologies such as blockchain in two cases that are in the process of being implemented: smart contracts and certified deposit guarantees, which are innovative mechanisms for the registry of transactions in open and traceable form,” says Martinez.

Another objective of the pilot programme is to “generate a public bidding system on the blockchain and within the country’s Open Contract Standards system and to integrate independent civilian evaluators or monitors not currently contemplated in Mexican legislation.”

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The model for governance of public purchases on the blockchain has been developed by federal government agencies in charge of technology with the help of Miguel Angel Porrua, an electronic government expert of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Eleazar Aguirre, a computer science professor and researcher at Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute.