California DMV will digitize auto title management system using Tezos

Ajay Gupta, the chief digital officer of the California DMV, stressed that the agency intends to upgrade its present processes and increase the transparency of auto title transfers.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is experimenting with the use of a private Tezos blockchain to digitize automobile titles and title transfers.

The action is part of a cooperation between the California Department of Vehicles, Tezos, and blockchain software company Oxhead Alpha, which on January 25 announced a successful proof-of-concept.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has contracted Oxhead Alpha to develop a private Tezos testnet that it has nicknamed a “shadow ledger.” It is intended to serve as a blockchain-based duplicate of the agency’s existing database.

Ajay Gupta, a chief digital officer of the California DMV, told Fortune on January 26 that the government hopes to get the shadow ledger resolved within three months.

The DMV intends to roll out apps such as digital wallets to store and transfer nonfungible token automobile titles, with the DMV serving as an intermediary to regulate such processes.

Gupta told Forbes that the DMV’s attitude of trailing behind should be changed. The president of Oxhead Alpha, Andrew Smith, said that the California DMV’s blockchain endeavour would serve a variety of use cases for the agency, including the upgrading of its present paper-based systems.

Smith provided instances of transaction fraud in which automobile vendors conceal vital information about the vehicle’s condition in order to sell a lemon to unwitting consumers.

While defective autos in California have a unique label on their titles, Smith observed that dealers may easily relocate the vehicle to another state and conceal the markings.

Smith said that, with blockchain-based record keeping and other DMVs perhaps adopting the technology, it would be much simpler to trace the digital history of automobiles.

This is a fairly clear use of having a lasting digital title, he said. Smith explained in the company’s January 25 release why Tezos was a suitable match for the DMV by stating that the blockchain “solves some of the very difficult challenges in blockchain in an elegant manner.”

The action by the California DMV is likely to be replicated by other state agencies in the future. In May of 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom of California issued an executive order to command and investigate prospects for blockchain technology interfaces with state government organizations.

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