California DMV Puts 42 million Car Titles on Blockchain
Officials assert its to help fight fraud.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has digitized 42 million car titles using blockchain technology,
The agency asserts that the new system will help detect fraud and smooth out the title transfer process.
The project, in collaboration with tech company Oxhead Alpha on Avalanche blockchain, will allow California’s more than 39 million residents to claim their vehicle titles through a mobile app, the first such move in the United States.
Digitizing car titles will reduce the need for in-person DMV visits and the blockchain technology will also function as a deterrent against lien fraud.Blockchain technology can help detect lien fraud by creating a transparent and unalterable record of property ownership, making it difficult for fraudulent activity to go unnoticed.
“So the first step was creating the 42 million titles associated as a token on the Avalanche blockchain, that’s what the State of California DMV has already done and now what they’re doing is they’re creating a wallet where you download on your phone,” said John Wu, president of Ava Labs.
California residents will be able to access their digital car titles starting early next year as the DMV builds out the app and infrastructure for consumer access.
Guided by a cultural shift in the global economy, governments and enterprise organizations across industries are embracing new technologies to solve complex problems.
Avalanche is bringing frontier technology to another mainstream application 🤝https://t.co/oFYTJdR08h
— Avalanche 🔺 (@avax) July 30, 2024
Blockchain is a system in which a record of transactions (most notably those made in a cryptocurrency) is maintained across computers linked in a peer-to-peer network. It’s supposed to make the title transfer a breeze and help Californians avoid those tedious trips to the DMV.
Users will soon be able to claim their digital titles via the DMV’s application, track and manage them without getting to the office, according to an Avalanche blog post. The time to transfer vehicle titles drops to a few minutes using blockchain rails in the backend from two weeks via the traditional process, a DMV spokesperson said in an email.
Efforts to deploy blockchain tech have mostly focused on financial services with big banks and asset managers putting traditional assets such as bonds, credit and funds on distributed ledgers pursuing speedier transactions, greater transparency and increased efficiency. This is also known as tokenization of real-world assets (RWA).
DMV’s implementation serves as an example that blockchain rails could also bring similar benefits for bureaucratic processes and managing large databases in the public service sector.
However, given the recent spate of Microsoft outages and other hacking reports, I am a bit nervous about digitizing without serious hard copy backups. Given how expensive cars have become and how critical having one is to people’s lives and livelihoods, extreme caution should be used before proceeding.
The unintended consequences of this move could be devastating if there are significant issues with the system.
It is also disturbing to note this move is also part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s plans to even have more control over our lives….under the banner of protections.
The move comes as part of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plans to capitalize on and encourage the development of cryptocurrency and web3 companies, while creating a layout for regulatory and consumer protections. Newsom in May 2022 issued an executive order directing his agencies to explore ways to use blockchain technology to improve public services and address gaps in programs.
Dee Dee Myers, senior advisor to Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, told CNBC in 2022 that the “opportunities are almost endless.” Myers explained that California could use the technology to remove middlemen from real estate deals or car sales, protect peoples’ identities, and provide benefits through government services.
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Comments
Nope. Nopenopenope. One negative “social credit score” and they have you
How does this relate to the story? If Newsome slapped a negative scs on someone he could direct that person have no business with the State. Same thing block chain or not.
To be followed by confiscation of all IC vehicles and all new EVs will have ESG interlocks…for your safety.
Cali could already “confiscate” IC vehicles. They could refuse to allow title transfers, not allow inspections so the couldn’t be registered etc.
After we surrender our dangerous firearms and when our batteries die Newsome and his gang will appear in all sorts of gasoline and diesel powered military vehicles to put the “Quieetus” on the angry crowd.
Some states have their act together.
When my son retitled his car from IL to Colorado, he walked out of DMV with his plates and a Colorado title.
Same here in KY. I sold a car and the buyer and I went to the DMV. Title was transferred to him and he had it the same day.
Same in NC
There is no need for a “blockchain” to provide an unalterable record. All one needs to do is have people digitally sign their own titles, with or without a trusted timestamp. That way the records are unalterable (within the cryptographic limits, as on any blockchain) and they are kept private – less public than being displayed forever on a public blockchain.
Frankly, records should be unalterable within government computers – which is easy to do with digital signing and timestamps – to begin with. Otherwise, the government should not be in the business of having those records, in the first place.
The main problem is that the government refuses to do its job, as regards fraud, and puts the onus on innocent victims. We see this in identity theft. If someone defrauds a bank and has the bank issue a loan in my name, I am not responsible for that. The bank is responsible for not doing its due diligence. In fact, I should have a solid case against the bank being part of the fraud against me! But, the government turns this whole situation around and puts the onus on me, with the bank that issued debt willy-nilly to some scammer bearing no responsibility, at all.
Social security numbers used to be public – your 1040 booklet would arrive in the mail with the address label pre-printed with your social security number. How did they avoid fraud? Social security numbers were never used for identification except for taxes. Banks had a “know your customer” rule. Anonymous banking required unique identifiers and they started using social security numbers anyway, and then everybody was vulnerable to standard bank practice.
The changeover was in the late 60s, when credit cards started to turn up all over.
There was a second iteration of rules for credit that came into being with the internet and credit card purchases online. Things were massively relaxed to allow easy credit card purchases online, but that opened up, full wide, the fraud possibilities. The easier it was for me to use my credit card online the easier it was for “not me” to use my credit card online. And they went the same way with the issuance of these instruments (since so many companies wanted to issue cards with no care who they really went to).
Back years ago, when online commerce first started I noticed the insane difference in using credit cards in person and the ease of just inputting numbers online. I wondered (aloud) why all merchants didn’t just put computers up front and have people pay “online” for their purchases in the store, since it was so much easier for all, as the rules were super-relaxed for online transactions. Never got a good answer … but identity theft and fraud went through the roof not long after.
BTW, when I was an undergraduate (early 80s) the university used our social security numbers for id. Not just the last 4 digits, but the whole number. It was on our university IDs, IIRC.
Yes, make everything so arcane no normal person can understand it, and only the crooks who implement it able to manipulate it or claim to verify it.
The next CA cluster fck on the horizon?
smh
With all these technological advances and there’s none to verify citizenship status in order to vote and the duplication verification to back it up?
we are to be transitioned to a similar system here by 7/25–for individuals perhaps a convenient alternative to in-person–for dealers, the pitfalls are significant–especially as concerns direct drafting access necessary for payment of sales taxes, registration, etc. to a dealer’s commercial banking accounts–have a couple of solutions to ameliorate the risks there but otherwise, as with other mega government roll-outs, am unconvinced by the state’s claims
Not gonna do this with votes, however.
Isn’t it odd that Newsome chose a startup block chain for this instead of an established one? A block chain that just happens to be partners with Amazon? One run by John Wu who, outside of his education and jobs since college, nothing can be found out about such as where he grew up, relatives etc?