Catalan government presents IdentiCAT decentralized digital identity project

Catalan president Quim Torra has presented plans for a decentralized digital identity project called IdentiCAT on Saturday, with bidding for the project that is expected to be completed by 2020 beginning this week at €550,000.

According to Torra, IdentiCAT would allow “Catalonia to become the first country with a decentralized digital identity where citizens own, manage and are the sole custodians of their identity and data.”

Not a digital ID card

Jordi Puigneró, the Catalan Minister for Digital Policy and Public Administration, stressed that IdentiCAT would not constitute a digital ID card of sorts, but an app that works as “a digital service instrument empowering citizens and guaranteeing the highest level of identity protection in accordance with the data protection law.”

People who wish to use IdentiCAT, which is expected to work as an app that uses blockchain and DLT technology, will be able to use it alongside or in lieu of already established methods.