mexican flag waving on blue background

Mexico Aims to Eliminate Corruption in Public Tenders Using Blockchain Technology

Aug 3, 2018, 12:16PM
1 min, 25 sec READ

Mexico will run a first blockchain public tender in August to transparently assign projects and eliminate corruption in the public sector.

A blockchain-based public tender will be held in Mexico this August. Only a few details have been revealed so far, as the tender's objectives and its governance details are yet to be presented.

As reported by local news outlet, El Economista, the model that will determine the tenders' governance terms was developed in collaboration across several governmental agencies, members from Mexico’s blockchain industry, as well as international experts. The bidding process is based on the Ethereum blockchain and implements the use of smart contracts to immutably record each separate phase of the project.

The first smart contract acts as the registration of the “Buyer Unit,” each public agency that seeks to acquire a product or service. Consequently, the second smart contract records the participants’ data in the blockchain, and the third verifies their reputation history based on previous biddings. The fourth smart contract stores every project information from registration to acquisition. Finally, the fifth smart contract evaluates all registrants’ proposals to ensure they meet technical requirements and awards the project to the winning bidder.

The project was initially introduced during the Talent Land 2018 hackathon last April and suggests a horizontal governance structure. It comprises of public institutions, universities, and public organizations that will evaluate the bids, operating as nodes to verify transactions in the network.

Mexico's national digital strategy coordinator, Yolanda Martinez, believes that the distributed ledger technology is a way to increase transparency and eliminate the easily corruptible “human factor,” a sensitive attribute that has traditionally been plaguing the Mexican public sector.

Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.