Catalan Government Develops DLT-based Identification System

The Catalan government has announced that it will develop a decentralized identification platform that will allow citizens to control their own data when interacting with online services.

The IdentiCAT project was announced by the Minister of Digital Politics and Public Administration, Jordi PUIGNERO, to “qualify and digitally empower Catalan citizens so they may carry out activities with full assurance and security in the digital society of the 21st century.”

The initiative is part of the policy of the autonomous region of Spain to encourage the use of technology in government and society. The IdentiCAT platform will be based on distributed ledger technology, where the Catalan government will perform validation functions. The government, however, will not collect user personal data:

“The ‘IdentiCAT’ will be the first digital identity at European level, which will be driven by the public sphere and managed by citizens themselves with the aim of becoming standard use in Catalonia.”

IdentiCAT is being developed in accordance with the 2014 elDAS EU rules on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions. Thus, users will be able to access online services and conduct electronic transactions in any EU member state. Once development is complete, IdentiCAT will be distributed for use by Catalan citizens, public organizations and companies.