The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is running a project to digitize all titles and put them on the blockchain, using the Tezos blockchain and working with crypto development firm Oxhead Alpha, the project aims to allow users to transfer titles as NFTs in the future.
Innovation Comes to California DMV
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is working to bring innovation to its operations by decentralizing functions. According to Ajay Gupta, chief digital officer of the state’s DMV, the agency is in the process of migrating all registered titles to the blockchain.
The project, which began in 2020 and stopped progressing due to the pandemic, will create a “shadow ledger” of all vehicle titles in the state and modernize registration and operations. The new system will be built on top of the Tezos blockchain and will be built in partnership with cryptocurrency developer Oxhead Alpha.
The system will be managed by DMV on a privately managed instance of the Tezos blockchain and already has nodes running that verify operations, reports Fortune Crypto .
title transfers on the blockchain
The California DMV hopes to finalize the setup of the system in the next three months and begin building an app that will offer customers a variety of functionality.
One of the benefits of having a digitized, permanent registry is that vehicles sold as lemons, i.e., with serious defects, will be registered as such, protecting future buyers. This would not be possible under the current system, which allows vehicles registered in other states to be sold without this designation.
Another application of this system would be to link with similar systems in other states to build a global registry of cars in the country, but this depends on how interested other regions are in implementing a blockchain system.
One of the most important applications foreseen is to allow customers to transfer titles as non-fusible tokens (NFTs) using a consumer app managed by the DMV, assuming the user complies with all requirements for that. This type of functionality is imminent, according to Gupta’s statement. He did not, however, give a timeline for the launch of this feature.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, 7713 Photography / Shutterstock.com