The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has started to roll out blockchain technology to secure state databases to prevent them from being hacked.

Said to be the first use of the blockchain for governance in Asia, the new platform has already been rolled out on a pilot basis in two state government departments, Civil Supplies and Land Registration, with the intention to roll it out to more following the conclusion of the test.

“Discussions have started on introducing this technology in other departments, too,” Andhra Pradesh Government IT Advisor J.A. Chowdury told The Indian Express. “We will assess the performance in these two departments first. It will take up to six months to cover all government departments.”

The use of a decentralized digital ledger for tracking government assets and transactions will remove the need for a central database of records, preventing them from being manipulated whether they’re digitized or in the case of Andhra Pradesh, only partially digitized.

In conjunction with the rollout of blockchain technology, the State Government is also undertaking training of civil servants in conjunction with IBM. “There are very few people available currently with in-depth knowledge of this technology, which is why we are tying up with these companies to help us introduce blockchain and train our people,” Chowdury added.

The move to adopt the blockchain for government transactions comes following the controversial move by the Indian Government to demonetize the 500 and 1000 rupee notes, a move that has forced consumers and government alike to look at ways to bring more financial transactions online.

“Now, the government is encouraging people to increase cashless and digital transactions from 10 percent to 50 percent. As the Internet is prone to cyber crime and hacking, the government has decided to use latest blockchain technology to avoid security breach,” a government spokesman told India Today.

The number of records needing to put into the new system in the state alone is estimated to be 10.3 million ration cards, 40.5 million individual records along with an unknown number of records from each state department.

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