Thailand will soon apply Blockchain to its Electronic Visa On Arrival (eVOA) for better security
Thailand, one of the most-visited countries in the world, will soon apply Blockchain to its Electronic Visa On Arrival (eVOA).
Thailand uses the VISA On Arrival system to streamline visitors into space. While the system is working quite well now, considering the tons of people who visit the country each year, it seems they are ready to move the eVOA system to the Blockchain network.
The goal will be to automate and speed up the process, not only for people entering the country but also for VISA applicants to do so. That way, Thailand can serve about five million people from all over the world.
Visas are still considered an expensive and time-consuming process for governments, corporations, and tourists, and most countries still use regular stamped visas.
However, there are a large number of government and industry players who believe that the ledger is distributed in a network of linked data blocks proving the identity of tourists, Blockchain, may mean is a solution to this nightmare.
Gateway Services, an eVOA-licensed company for Thailand and Australian travel company ShareRing, decided to cooperate in this security-based effort.
According to the official announcement, Thailand plans to start using blockchain-enabled eVOA services with visitors from China and India first and then they will also use this service for other countries.
As you may know, the eVOA process is carried out whenever someone lands at a domestic airport. Of course, these users right now have to carry around a lot of physical material, which can become quite annoying. This Blockchain-based network helps digitize and automate processes. According to an email sent to publication, this process can even take up to an hour at a time.
This new feature will streamline the Thai visa application process because its current Visa On Arrival process is carried out at airports or entry points in Thailand, according to Tim Bos, CEO and co-founder at ShareRing. The process is paper-based and requires travelers to bring some documents such as printed copies of airline tickets, confirmation of accommodation and photos. Such a process usually takes about an hour to complete, Bos said.
ShareRing has worked with Gateway Services
ShareRing’s CEO noted that due to the digitalization process involved in high-risk fraud or mistakes from the eVOA provider, ShareRing has worked with Gateway Services to improve the security, speed and quality of this process.
Because ShareRing supplies Gateway Services with OneID autonomous identification technology, this enables optical character recognition (OCR) and data protection by encrypting all information into a file on the Blockchain. Bos explained that such a combination of Blockchain technology and OCR would reduce the amount of time needed for eVOA’s partners to manually verify all information.
In addition, ShareRing is paying close attention to further expanding the Blockchain-based visa application system after completing the initial pilots.
Speaking about publishing issues is Tim Bos, CEO and co-founder of ShareRing. He noted the following:
“We consider this as a blueprint for expansion to other nations. It’s not a rushing process, because we need to make sure we get it right here before we get into the other countries”.
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