Quick Take
Santa Cruz County has shelved its ambitious blockchain wallet project after two years, citing complexity and low public adoption. Officials now plan to pursue simpler digital tools they say are better suited to resident needs.
Santa Cruz County has quietly abandoned an ambitious plan to build a blockchain digital wallet for residents to store permits and other government documents. Once touted by local leaders as carrying bleeding-edge potential, the program attracted few users and the tech was too complex, officials said.
As initially pitched by former county supervisor Zach Friend in 2022, the integration of blockchain technology into the local government offerings was seen as something that could increase the equity and accessibility of Santa Cruz County services, open avenues for cryptocurrency and place the county ahead of the public sector’s tech curve.
Facilitated by Friend, the county agreed to contract with Humbl Inc., a San Diego-based financial technology startup specializing in the blockchain and digital asset investment. The company offered to work without pay on the pilot program to develop the new county mobile app, MySCCounty+, and a digital wallet where residents could store their county permits and registrations.
“No other local government in California is as dedicated to leveraging the power of technology to serve residents,” Friend said at the time.
In the end, however, it was too complicated. The pilot program ended in April, and on Tuesday, the board of supervisors quietly received a memo that county staff preferred to abandon its blockchain pursuits.
Tammie Weigl, the county’s information technology director, told Lookout that the county sought to develop a digital wallet for documents like parking placards for recreational vehicles, bicycle registrations, over-the-counter planning permits, and swim club passes. However, she said her team found that blockchain, which is an advanced system for recording and verifying digital information such as documents and transactions, was overly complex for these purposes. The technology ultimately represented a Ferrari, when Santa Cruz County residents “really just need that simple Toyota.”
“Tammie Weigl getting a swim pass and making sure that the pass really belongs to Tammie Weigl doesn’t really require blockchain,” she said.
Despite the pilot program lasting two years, the digital wallet offered on the county’s MySCCounty+ app never expanded beyond allowing residents to store RV parking permits on their mobile devices. And, Weigl said, “only five to 10” people actually used it.
Neither representatives from Humbl Inc. nor Friend responded to requests for comment.
Weigl said the county is likely to shutter its MySCCounty+ app and revert back to using the standard MySCCounty (no +) app, which, among other things, allows residents to report potholes.
However, Weigl ultimately called the experiment a success because it led the county to see that a digital wallet, though a much simpler one, would be useful for residents.
“There may be a future want and need for this kind of technology,” Weigl said, particularly if residents can one day carry around more sensitive documents, such as a digital version of a driver’s license. “But we have some more immediate needs. People would like to be able to go to Simpkins Swim Center and carry a pass on their phone. If we can have that technology, that’s a win for our residents and that’s where we’re seeing the appetite for a digital county wallet.”
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