The Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine province of Misiones approved the creation of the Missionary Program of Financial Innovation with Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency. From this project, Missions will have its own stablecoin and store public administration data on the blockchain.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance, Public Works and Services of Misiones, this will be “the first province in the country to approve a conceptual framework to develop these digital tools that are transforming finance and public and private management at a global level”. The bill is being analyzed by an interdisciplinary team that integrates, among other professionals, the Minister of Finance Adolfo Safran.
The initiative, which already has the average ratification of Deputies but must also be approved in the Senate of the province to be approved as a law, has three main objectives. The one that stands out most among them is the creation of a stablecoin (or ‘stable cryptocurrency’ in Spanish) that will work for the province as a “financing and transaction tool with private and public entities of the country and the world”.
Also, the use of blockchain for data management will be promoted in different areas of public administration. Misiones already has a history in the use of these technologies by state entities, according to the Ministry of Finance. For example, the Technological Pole of the Industrial Park of Posadas (the capital of the province) were delivered certificates issued based on the blockchain; also the Tax Agency of Misiones will soon use this method for the Digital Citizen Missionary application that, among other things, will allow to identify taxpayers by scanning their identity document.
For its part, the official gazette of the Chamber in which the approval of the text is announced details the objectives of the law promoted by Carlos Rovira, former governor of Misiones, and Roque Gervasoni, both legislators of the provincial ruling party, the Renovador para la Concordia Front. In this sense, it is explained that it seeks to “provide traceability, security, inalterability and transparency to any type of data and processes”. In addition, Rovira states that ” the implementation of blockchain technology tends to favor unpapelization, which generates a fundamental impact on biodiversity care policies.”
The last of the objectives of the Blockchain Mission Program detailed in the official publications has to do with the creation of the so-called Green Certificate. This bond will be a record stored on the blockchain of the economic values that the province contributes to the region and the world in the form of environmental contributions. Thus, it will be left constancy of how Missions contributes to the absorption of a part of the carbon footprint through their jungle.
Missions has shown interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the past
In this Argentine province cryptocurrencies have occupied the legislative precincts on several occasions during the last years. For example, in August 2020 CriptoNoticias reported on a project to reward citizens with good practices for caring for the environment with a cryptocurrency called JellyCoin. The organization in charge is called Project Hive, and according to a publication of February 2021, the plan is still in development and has already been presented its whitepaper.
For his part, Deputy Roque Gervasoni had presented in 2020 a project to create a cryptocurrency exchange with state participation. However, that initiative did not succeed, although the legislator was eventually able to collaborate on the new programme recently approved by the House.