Georgian Minister of Justice: Blockchain will be used to manage government paperwork in 2017

The Republic of Georgia is about to connect to blockchain technology, according to the country’s Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani.

Tsulukiani said that Georgia could be the first European country to deploy distributed ledger technology. They plan to use the technology for government paperwork. She pointed out that the launch of this blockchain-based filing system is tentatively scheduled for 2017, and real estate transactions are the first area to face reform:

Strictly speaking, we are ready to connect to the blockchain system. Blockchain is a modern technology for storing documents online; we plan to initially use the system for recording transaction documents. Thanks to the efforts of the Public Registry, Georgia is ready to adopt this system. Next year, information on real estate transactions will be recorded on the blockchain, which is just the first step. Soon, we will issue a detailed notice to inform the public about this.

The blockchain system server used by the government is reportedly located in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and belongs to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has served as the country’s prime minister since October 2012.

Georgia has shown strong interest in blockchain technology at all levels. In April, the Georgian National Public Registry and BitFury partnered to launch a pilot project for a blockchain-based land registry system with the help of Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto.

Valery Vavilov, CEO of BitFury, a bitcoin infrastructure provider that has two mining centers in Georgia, said Georgia is a good choice for mining companies because of its low electricity and labor costs, easy-to-use taxation system and complete lack of corruption.