Redefining Governmental Services Through Blockchain and Smart Contracts

Abstract

This study explores the potential of blockchain technology to redefine public administration, focusing on the integration of Ethereum, a blockchain platform, and the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) for notarial certification issuance. The core aim is to evaluate the capacity of this technology to augment governmental efficacy, ensure transparency in service provision, decentralize data management, and maintain information integrity. The architectural components of the system comprise Ethereum's smart contracts, Ether, gas, and a decentralized application, supplemented by IPFS as a decentralized file storage system for a secure and transparent certificate issuance mechanism. Scalability assessments indicated efficient processing of multiple transactions per second (TPS), suggesting the system's capability to service a considerable number of simultaneous users. The encryption and decryption performance exhibited by IPFS, particularly for small content sizes of 250 KB and 500 KB, was near-instantaneous. Average times for deployment and execution were recorded as 9 seconds and 6 seconds, respectively. In conclusion, the synergistic integration of Ethereum and IPFS exhibits the potential to significantly transform public administration by augmenting efficiency and transparency in the delivery of citizencentric services. Notably, the incorporation of IPFS for secure file storage and hash transmissions was instrumental in optimizing cost-efficiency.