Blockchain technology in the Río Negro Lottery: a development under trial

On December 2019, the Río Negro Lottery took on a joint work with the company OS City in order to apply blockchain technology to the lottery process. Nowadays, an implementation of blockchain is taking place on a trial basis, and it will soon be available to all citizens.

Luis Ayestarán, the president of the Rio Negro Lottery, along with Lucas Jolías, the head of OS City, presented the advances. Ayestarán explained that this technology will validate two procedures: on the one hand, the winning numbers of La Rionegrina’s drawings will be encrypted with blockchain, which guarantees that the numbers were not altered and that they cannot be changed in the future either.

In this case, tests were carried out in La Rionegrina’s drawings to verify that OS City’s operating system accurately adapts to the procedure established for the daily drawings of La Rionegrina. The aim is to ensure that the information resulting from a drawing cannot be modified.

On the other hand, at a second stage, the certification of prizes worth over 100,000 ARS will be addressed. With respect to this matter, Ayestarán asserted that “the certificate that we will produce will lend a new validity to the source of the prize funds won in games of chance. This certificate will enable the holder to prove he or she is the winner of a lottery prize to a bank, a notary public’s office or a real estate registry office.”

Lucas Jolías, the head of OS City, asserted that the drawing certificates will be available on the official website of the Río Negro Lottery around the middle of March.

The Río Negro Lottery is the first in South America to use blockchain. Jolías stated that, based on his researches, “the Lottery of Río Negro is one of the first entities worldwide to start using this technology, better known by the world of cryptocurrencies. The Government of Río Negro is a pioneer in using this technology; there are not many similar cases. This is a first experience that creates a wide range of opportunities.”