Tajik government taps blockchain firm for e-government infrastructure
The President of Tajikistan is pursuing an ambitious integration of blockchain technology into his government's ongoing modernization drive.
According to the announcement from smart contract platform Fantom, a new public-private partnership between the Fantom Foundation and the Tajik Ministry of Industry of New Technologies will see the two roll out a range of blockchain-based solutions across nationwide IT infrastructure.
The partnership is meant for research, development and implementation of various blockchain-enabled data-sharing, transparent and automation solutions.
Partners will establish a research and development hub to provide training to the local developers to build blockchain-based operations and systems. In parallel, Fantom will thoroughly go through existing data flows and documentation at the ministry and propose solutions that can streamline legacy processes and potentially boost productivity. Fantom will also look into the potential value of central bank digital currency issuance for the country’s payments system.
The Republic of Tajikistan’s modernization program has been in motion since President Rahmon assumed power in 1994, and has most recently resulted in the 2019 legislative agenda to widen broadband access, expand technology training programs and create dedicated agencies to oversee the digitalization of national IT infrastructure.
While speaking on the new initiative to build the “e-government” strategies with the help of blockchain technology, Fantom director of South Asia Jawid Sikandar stated:
“Following our success in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the agreement to begin work in Tajikistan truly underscores the ways Fantom’s solutions respond to the pressing needs of growing economies. It is tremendously gratifying to know that we can play a part in helping these countries reach their development milestones.”
The technology of Fantom is not blockchain in the conventional sense but draws upon what is called Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology. DAG-based protocols allow for the asynchronous confirmation of transactions. Conflux, Hedera Hashgraph, IOTA and Nano are all companies in the broad blockchain landscape that make use of DAG protocols and their potential to support a higher transaction throughput.
