A blockchain plus government service platform was launched on Aug 3 in Shiguai district in Baotou -- in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region -- marking the first blockchain plus government service applications scenario launched in the autonomous region.

According to a report in the Baotou Daily, the district will first launch blockchain plus public rental housing applications scenarios.

To try out the platform, Shiguai residents just need to register and log in to the platform through the WeChat public account of Meili Xiguitu (Charming Xiguitu).

Residents can fill in the information after facial recognition is approved. Required materials should be uploaded.

They then confirm the information and submit.

Officials said that if the materials are prepared in advance, the entire application process will only take a few minutes.

After submission, residents can check the process and progress at any time.

According to Shiguai government service bureau officials, with the application of the blockchain platform, submission materials have been reduced from seven to five and the process time has been shortened from 27 working days to 15 working days.

They said applicants need not worry about the security of their information with the face recognition and the data is verified on the chain through the query interface and encrypted transmission in an "available and invisible" way.

Officials said this does not modify the original data, nor does it need to copy the entire data. The verification transaction process will also be chained, to ensure data security and the sharing process cannot be tampered with.

Moving forwards, Shiguai district will give full play to the advantages of blockchain technology.

It will use it to explore the traceability of agricultural products, in real estate registration and social assistance scenarios, to improve the efficiency of administrative approvals and to promote the high-quality development of government services.