California County Approves Digital Wallet for Public Services

Santa Cruz County in California has approved the use of digital wallets in transactions carried out in the domain of public services.

Santa Cruz County on the coast of central California has approved a partnership agreement with San Diego data transaction firm HUMBL. The goal is to develop blockchain-based digital wallet technology. The representative council adopted the proposal unanimously.

Digital wallets for municipal services

“We believe the value of digitizing paper documents, records and services is an important step forward,” Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend asserted, in a statement cited Thursday on HUMBL’s website.

If all goes as planned, officials will soon be using digital wallets in their transactions. Local governments will integrate the technology with the My Santa Cruz County mobile app, a portal for public services. But not everyone is happy about the step, as concerns about the potential misuse of personal data remain.

Critical trial periods are ahead of us. The application will have three initial use cases. Including bicycle registration, registration of motorhome parking and additional functionality for emergency push notifications. HUMBL hopes to enter the digital wallet in a pilot phase in July 2023.

Some residents have expressed privacy concerns. However, in theory the company will only have insight into the number of times users download the app.

Are digital wallets safe?

In an age of hacking and data breaches, concerns about the security of personal data are high. The agreement requires HUMBL to follow a strict, comprehensive data security plan developed in collaboration with the Information Services Department (ISD).

Nothing is set in stone at this point. County officials will use the pilot period to assess how things are going and develop further use cases. An official report will come in September.

At least one commenter on the Santa Cruz government website didn’t seem happy with the plans. “Please suspend further action and progress on this item because it appears that HUMBL is unstable and may not be trusted,” said Becky Seinbruner, who seemed concerned about the “inappropriate use and sale of personal information.”

Authorities are increasingly using blockchain for their services and record keeping. Thailand’s National Digital ID Company Limited is currently rolling out its blockchain-based biometric digital identity infrastructure. Half of the population is now eligible to use the system, which will soon introduce verifiable identification and a digital wallet.