Bolivia president-elect plans blockchain anti-corruption tool
Bolivia's president-elect Rodrigo Paz said his administration will deploy blockchain and smart contracts in public purchasing to reduce discretion and fight corruption once he takes office.
Paz won the October 19 runoff with about 54.5% of the vote against former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, according to preliminary results from wire services. He will be sworn in on November 8.
His platform includes two digital-asset measures. The first applies blockchain and smart contracts to automate parts of public procurement. The second allows citizens to declare crypto among assets in a one-off regularization to help capitalize a foreign-exchange stabilization fund. The proposals frame blockchain as a transparency mechanism rather than a plan to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
Paz campaigned on anti-corruption and institutional reform during a period of fuel shortages and a U.S. dollar squeeze. His Christian Democratic Party will govern in a fragmented legislature, which could affect the pace of implementing procurement reforms and any asset-regularization drive.
In the campaign's final stretch, Paz pledged a stricter stance on graft, arguing that "when money isn't stolen, there is enough for everyone."
Bolivia's central bank enabled regulated crypto transactions in 2024. Private-sector trials involving stablecoins followed.
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