Brazil Considers Ethereum Blockchain for Petitions

Brazil plans to store and process popular petitions on the Ethereum blockchain, with local legislators hoping this will simplify and streamline the collection and verification of signatures from the country’s 145 million registered voters. This process is quite challenging at present, partly due to Brazil’s vast territory, large population, and inadequate infrastructure.

Popular petitions are a key feature of the country’s political operations, allowing the public to get directly involved in decision-making processes. Yet, Brazil has found it difficult to develop an efficient and democratic approach.

According to University of Brasilia law professor Henrique Araújo Costa, the Brazilian constitution stipulates that petitions signed by at least 1% of the registered voters must get a hearing in the National Congress. However, it does not always happen this way, as Costa explained for Quartz:

“In part this is due to the absence of a platform that can securely collect the signatures of one percent of voters. We’ve been through a sort of crisis regarding the legitimacy…of our laws.”

“Popular [petitions] always arise on very sensitive themes. If we do not overcome this security issue regarding the collection of signatures, we will still be further from achieving the exercise of citizenship that our Congress promised decades ago,” he added.

The masterminds of the project are university lecturer and congressional legislative adviser Ricardo Fernandes Paixão and Everton Fraga, a designer and programmer with the Ethereum Foundation.

The blockchain system provided by Ethereum would improve the security and processing time for petition signatures. Currently, a mobile app is under development, with an API that provides access for developers to apply it.

If the initiative materializes, “it would be a celebration of democracy,” according to Fraga, who added:

“With this project, we are doing what the constitution says, but in practice, it hasn’t [yet] happened.”

Currently, Ethereum’s token has regained its position as the second largest cryptocurrency after Ripple lost over 20% in the last 24 hours. The latter’s price decline accelerated after Coinbase denied rumors that it would add Ripple’s token, XRP, to its exchange.