The Spanish autonomous community of Aragon will be the first in the country to implement blockchain technology into its public administration. Aragon Finance and Public Administration Advisor Fernando Gimeno have signed a deal with Spain-based blockchain consortium Alastria to modernise the local government’s public services as well as their internal processes.

Alastria claims to the first “multi-sectorial consortium promoted by organisations and institutions for the establishment of a semi-public blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure, supporting services with legal effectiveness in the Spanish scope and according to European regulation”.

A very important deal

Gimeno says the partnership with the consortium “is very important due to its transformative capabilities”. He adds that “when in the future we look back to today we will immediately realise the benefits of the transformative power of blockchain” in the public administration of Aragon.

He believes blockchain technology will increase government transparency and increase public services efficiency. These transformations, adds Gimeno, will attract more business and investments. Government employees are currently being trained in this area.

In June, Catalonia, another of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, publicly expressed interest in implementing blockchain to its public administration. The community’s Department of Digital Policies has plans to develop a strategy to adopt the open ledger technology by the end of this year.