The California DMV is set to digitize car titles and title transfers

blockchain.news:

The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in the state of California is conducting experiments with the use of a private Tezos blockchain to facilitate the digitalization of vehicle titles and title transfers.

The move is being made as part of a cooperation between the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the blockchain software company Tezos, and the blockchain software company Oxhead Alpha. Oxhead Alpha announced a successful proof-of-concept on January 25.

Oxhead Alpha has been contracted by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to build on a private Tezos testnet that the DMV has nicknamed a «shadow ledger.» Its primary purpose is to serve as a blockchain-based copy of the agency's existing database, which has been its primary focus since its inception.

Ajay Gupta, the chief digital officer of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, told Fortune on January 26 that the department hopes to have the kinks worked out of the shadow ledger within the next three months.

After that, it intends to roll out apps such as digital wallets to keep and transfer nonfungible token vehicle titles, with the DMV serving as a mediator to monitor such processes. In addition to that, it is planning to roll out applications similar to the one described above.

According to an interview that Gupta gave to Forbes, «The DMV's reputation of falling behind should surely alter.»

Andrew Smith, president of Oxhead Alpha, said that the California Department of Motor Vehicles' (DMV) blockchain programme would serve a broad variety of use cases for the department, notably addressing the agency's present paper-based systems and their eventual upgrade.

Smith gave many instances of fraudulent transactions, such as when automobile