Blockchain technology company Bitfury Group Ltd. announced Thursday that it has joined the government of Ukraine in a deal to create the first full-scale distributed ledger e-governance program for the country.

Bitfury Group Chief Executive Officer Valery Vavilov (pictured, left) signed the deal with the head of the State Agency for eGovernance of Ukraine Oleksandr Ryzhenko (right). The partnership will begin a pilot program to introduce blockchain technology into Ukraine’s eGovernment platform.

The main areas covered by the partnership include blockchain for state registrars, public services, social security, public health and the energy sector. With the completion of the pilot, the Ukraine government also expects to explore using blockchain technology for cybersecurity.

“Ukraine’s aim of reform in the government sector is extremely strong,” said Ryzhenko. He highlighted that the country expects that the integration of the technology has the promise of greatly improving services. “Blockchain has proved itself as a good ground for cost reduction, government efficiency and transparency to help reduce corruption.”

Furthermore, this is only the beginning for the Ukraine and blockchain technology. “Our aim is clear and ambitious–we want to make Ukraine one of the world’s leading blockchain nations,” Ryzhenko told Reuters.

The Ukraine has previously tested and implemented a blockchain platform to run government auctions. The country currently uses a blockchain-based auction platform from Distributed Lab in order to curtail corruption in the sale of government assets.

Bitfury will lean on its expertise with setting up government blockchains to help build the solution for Ukraine. In 2016, the company signed an agreement to pilot blockchain technology with the Republic of Georgia to form a land-titling registry. That system is now implemented with Georgia’s National Agency of Public Registry and uses distributed time-stamping and ledgers to verify and sign documents containing essential information and proof of ownership of property.

Other countries have explored blockchain solutions for government recordkeeping, but most of them cover only specific needs such as real estate ownership and healthcare. These solutions include Sweden’s blockchain-based land registry from startup ChromaWay and Estonia’s healthcare record blockchain from Guardtime AS as well as Georgia’s land title blockchain.

Photo: Bitfury