California DMV will use Tezos to digitize its vehicle title management system

Shortly after the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and Oxhead Alpha announced that they had successfully launched a proof-of-concept phase, DMV said, on January 26, that it would begin digitizing vehicle titles and transferring ownership in a pilot on Tezos, an open-source blockchain.

DMV’s chief digital officer, Ajay Gupta, said the department aims to shift its fading disposition towards technological innovation by working with partners. The goal is to launch the ledger in the shadows over the next three months.

The DMV hopes to launch and coordinate digital wallets and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to hold and transfer vehicle addresses.

California supports encryption

The DMV’s initiative to modernize its existing paper system has won the optimism of Andrew Smith, president of Oxhead Alpha. To build on it, Oxhead Alpha will use private pools of smart contracts on the Tezos blockchain. These smart contracts will be private and invisible on the public chain.

Smith believes Tezos’ integration of record-keeping will reduce rampant car thefts, misplaced car titles, and more.

This latest development has its roots in California’s Blockchain Working Group’s 2020 roadmap that highlights the successive involvement of blockchain in critical areas of banking, finance, security, property, and more.

In May 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to oversee and investigate potential blockchain technology interfaces with state government agencies.

The current development with DMV and its partners will launch tentatively in the second quarter of 2023. It could allow Californians to view more than 30 million vehicle titles registered on NFTs.

In a few months, the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture will launch a pilot project with similar supply value as the DMV.